Aston-Reese reunited with third line in practice

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins' third line in Monday's practice had a familiar look to it. 

With Jared McCann missing Monday's practice with a lower-body injury sustained in Sunday's game, Zach Aston-Reese stepped into his spot on the left wing of the third line, reuniting him with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev.

Aston-Reese, who has been skating with the team for quite some time now and traveled with the team during its road trip to Long Island, is still looking to play in his first game of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a nagging shoulder injury in August.

This was the first practice in which Aston-Reese took consistent, regular line rushes since his injury.

That line of Aston-Reese, Blueger, and Tanev was the Penguins' line combination that was the most enduring throughout last season, and for good reason.

That line -- technically the fourth line last year, although they played third-line minutes -- was deployed primarily in a defensive role in five-on-five last year. They only had 70 offensive zone faceoffs all season, compared to 194 in the defensive zone.

They were extremely effective in that defensive role. They had a slight edge in all shot attempts taken while they were on the ice, with the Penguins controlling 50.15 percent of all attempts when they were on the ice. They were very effective in the high-danger areas of the ice surrounding the net, with the Penguins controlling 57.14 percent of all high-danger attempts when their line was on the ice. The actual goals that occurred when that line was on the ice was even, with 10 goals scored by the Penguins and 10 goals scored against. That's what you want for a line in that role.

Blueger and Tanev have been together some time this season, but Aston-Reese's ability to clear the crease and prevent the shots from the areas close to the net has been missing from that line. When Blueger and Tanev were together last season without Aston-Reese, there was quite the change in the distribution of high-danger attempts, with the Penguins only controlling 42.62 of the high-danger attempts, a big drop from the 57.14 percent they controlled when Aston-Reese was on that line.

I asked Blueger after Monday's practice what about Aston-Reese's game made their line such a good bottom-six line last season, and what he said about Aston-Reese's net-front presence and possession backs up what the numbers say.

"I think he's physical, he's hard on the puck," Blueger said. "He's good in front of the net. He makes good decisions defensively, he's always in the right position. He plays a hard, heavy game. In the offensive zone he's great protecting the puck and holding onto it, allowing us to have possession. 

Mark Jankowski hasn't played in a game with Aston-Reese yet, but he's seen what Aston-Reese can bring to the bottom-six and the penalty kill just through practices.

"He looks really good, looks ready," Jankowski says. "He's fast, he's hard on pucks, he can make plays. He's a good player that will definitely help our lineup."

Mike Sullivan said last week that he anticipated Aston-Reese being one of the Penguins' game-time decisions for the games on the New York-New Jersey road trip. He didn't play in the first game on Long Island, and the second game of the trip against New Jersey was postponed. Sullivan doesn't make any official lineup declarations this early before a game, but it's probably safe to say that Aston-Reese will be back in the lineup on Thursday for the second game on Long Island. And it's safe to say that he'll be playing next to Blueger and Tanev on the line that did so well last year.

“It makes us harder to play against, an important aspect of winning in today’s NHL,” Sullivan said of what Aston-Reese brings back to the lineup last week. “Zach’s a good player, he’s a good penalty killer, he’s a good shot blocker, he has the ability to play a heavy game when he’s engaged and has the right mindset. That’s something Zach and I have talked about a lot over the last couple of years. We’re excited to get Zach back in the fold here. ... Zach’s a guy I think can be a very valuable player for us.”

MORE FROM PRACTICE

• Mike Matheson collided with a teammate during a drill and was injured. He stayed down on the ice for a few moments, then was helped up by trainer Chris Stewart and another player, looking shaken up. He skated off the ice and went into the locker room on his own. Sullivan said after practice that Matheson was still being evaluated.

• Still no specifics on McCann, who left last game in the first period with a lower-body injury. Sullivan said he is still being evaluated and that there should be an update tomorrow

• Marcus Pettersson skated with the taxi squad Monday morning. Juuso Riikola, Brian Dumoulin, and Evan Rodrigues have yet to skate. Dumoulin and Rodrigues were seen watching practice from the other side of the glass on Monday.

• Matheson's injury occurred during 4-on-4 and 4-on-3 work, before any regular line rushes. The defense rotated during line rushes.

• The forward lines were: 

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
O'Connor-Jankowski-Lafferty
Sceviour rotated in on either wing on the fourth line.

• There was a bit of a heated moment between Sam Lafferty and Teddy Blueger during a drill. Blueger hit Lafferty in the corner, Lafferty took exception to it and crosschecked Blueger, and the two shoved each other back and forth a little bit exchanging words before Blueger skated off. 

• Blueger is usually the last player on the ice, doing his usual solo laps at center ice. Today, P.O Joseph stayed on the ice well after anyone else, just taking shots. When the arena workers opened the Zamboni door to come on the ice, P.O skated over and asked if it was okay if he kept shooting for a little while longer. A few minutes later, equipment manager Paul Defazio walked by and told Joseph that he needed to get off the ice because a youth practice was happening soon. Joseph asked if it was okay if he just took shots for a few more minutes, and Defazio told him it was fine. Eventually, equipment manager Dana Heinze came out and got Joseph off the ice. If it weren't for the youth practice after, he'd probably still be out there now.

• During practice the Steelers officially named (a different) Mike Sullivan their quarterback coach, surely making the quarterbacks hard to play against and increasing their stick-to-it-iveness. The Penguins' Mike Sullivan spoke about the hire after practice.

"There are a lot of Mike Sullivans in the world, that I can assure you," said Sullivan. "It seems it's a very common Irish Catholic name. I actually have a cousin with the same name. That's something that I've been used to my whole life. 

"The fact that the Steelers have a Mike Sullivan, that's a unique circumstance to have two coaches in the same city with the same name. I wish him well."

• Blueger took warmups for most of last season without his helmet. This season, he wears a helmet during warmups. I wanted to know why he made the change. No, it isn't because of quarantine hair. I asked.

"Oh, no," he laughed. "I don't think I started going no-helmet until halfway through last year. I don't know what the change was. I didn't wear it in the bubble, and things didn't really work out. I figured, maybe to start this year, to kind of change it up a little bit. I guess that's it at this point."