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Penguins lose Blueger to injury

January 25, 2022, 8:54 AM ET [117 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The time the Penguins have had their top four centers in the same lineup has been minimal this year. Evgeni Malkin finally made his return earlier this month and Jeff Carter left COVID protocol. It was a nice handful of games with Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Carter, and Teddy Blueger. It is going to be more than a handful of games before they are back together again. Teddy Blueger broke his jaw and will be out 6-8 weeks.




Teddy Blueger is a really good fourth line center. He’s a set it and forget it type of player. You know exactly what you are getting. You know you don’t have to cater his usage to “hide” him from the other team. As far as 4th line players go this is as stress free as you’re going to get.



For the short term the team can shift Brian Boyle over to the middle. You lose a lot of speed, but Boyle can be a place holder for a 4th line position. While Evan Rodrigues has shown the ability to play center you absolutely cannot use him in a 4th line role. He needs to remain in the top nine. He also needs to regain his mojo from most of the season. If you can believe it he has gone eight games without a point. Coincidently, he stopped producing when Malkin came back. With Bryan Rust stapled to Crosby and the team still trying to make the Malkin-Kapnaen duo work during much of the last seven games Rodrigues was no longer getting the top six minutes he once was. With Kapanen being taken off the Malkin line twice in the last few games Rodrigues might have a chance to break the point slump with some time on the Malkin line. I’d be curious to see what a Heinen-Malkin-Rodrigues line looks like for a couple of games. No better time to figure something like that out than when you have the Coyotes at home.

Thanks for reading!
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