CRANBERRY, Pa. -- If nothing else, Teddy Blueger has learned during the past month that he has a favorite food.
The kind that has to be chewed.
That hard (or is it mushy?) truth registered with him in the week or so after he underwent surgery to repair a fractured jaw Jan. 24, when the only things he needed at mealtimes were a cup, a straw and a blender.
"No foods were really very good blended-up," Blueger said after the Penguins' practice Wednesday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. "The first week, not being able to have any solid foods, going into that I didn't think it was going to be too bad. But it's crazy, just how much you want to chew something.
"Just being able to eat, basically, makes a big difference. Even though some of the flavors can be the same, it's just not the same satisfaction."
Blueger's dining habits are returning to normal these days, as is his work routine.
He participated in the Penguins' practice for the second day in a row, albeit in a gray (no contact) jersey, after going through the latest in a series of pre-workout sessions with skills coach Ty Hennes.
"When you get in a team environment, the pace is a little higher," Blueger said.
There is no target date yet for his return to the lineup; his recovery time was projected at 6-to-8 weeks, and he has been out for just over four so far.
Although Blueger shrugged off the questionable hit by Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon that injured him -- "Everyone's kind of moved past it," he said. "It is what it is. Those things happen in the game." -- he described a rather gruesome scene after he adjourned to the locker room.
"When it happened, right away it just felt like I got hit pretty hard," Blueger said. "Then the blood started pouring out. I remember just walking through the tunnel (that leads to the locker room) and (athletic trainer Chris Stewart) was giving me a towel. It didn't really do anything. (Blood) was just pouring out so fast that it went right through the towel and another towel.
"As I was in the medical room, after a couple of minutes it didn't really stop and the docs couldn't see ... I could feel something was wrong in my mouth. One of my wisdom teeth was dislodged, so I couldn't really close my jaw fully, and I could feel it in there but they couldn't really see anything of what was going on because there was so much blood. It was a little scary there for a couple of minutes."
The Penguins' penalty-kill hasn't been quite that frightening in recent weeks, but neither has it performed at the level it routinely reached before Blueger was injured.
Mike Sullivan said "there are specific things that we've gotten away from" in shorthanded situations, citing problems with faceoffs, getting length-of-the-ice clears and limiting zone-entries.
Although Blueger is highly effective in the middle of a bottom-six line when the teams are at even-strength, it's not hard to make a case that he is most valuable when the Penguins are down a man.
He is their only center to handle more than five faceoffs while opponents have a power play and win more than he's lost (44-42), and his overall penalty-killing acumen is a primary reason they've had one of the NHL's top units for most of this season.
"I don't think there's any question he helps us in all of those areas," Sullivan said. "He's been one of our better penalty-killers. He's not an easy guy to replace, in that regard."
Which is an unpleasant reality the Penguins likely will have to chew on for at least a couple more weeks.
