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Mother and adult daughter charged with killing 5 relatives in Bucks County

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Your view: Congratulations to everyone involved in THON

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Teddy Blueger called his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins a &#8220;dream come true,&#8221; but the experience stopped short of being complete.Blueger appeared in nine games with Pittsburgh earlier this month, notching three goals and four points. But after Monday&#8217;s NHL trade deadline, he found himself back at the Toyota Sportsplex practicing with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.Blueger has spent most of his entire pro career &#8212; three-plus years &#8212; with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and as his game developed, Pittsburgh fans became vocal about wanting to see him with the NHL club.Blueger himself was open about the situation, admitting he was frustrated at times about not getting a call.That&#8217;s why it was no surprise that, even though he got nine games with the parent club, Blueger isn&#8217;t completely satisfied.When asked Tuesday if he feels he accomplished enough to earn another call-up to Pittsburgh, Blueger said, &#8220;To an extent. To be honest, I was hoping to stick around and stay up there.&#8220;For the most part, I played well but came up a bit short of my end goal.&#8221;Blueger returns to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton tied with Ethan Prow for the team lead in points (39) and still the leader in goals (21). Even though he was hoping to stay with Pittsburgh, Blueger admitted it was nice to be back on the ice with his Wilkes-Barre/Scranton teammates, and he&#8217;s ready to help them continue to push for a playoff spot.And while he&#8217;s with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, head coach Clark Donatelli indicated that Blueger can expect a heavy workload.&#8220;He plays a lot of situations. We&#8217;re happy to have him, and we&#8217;ll go forward with Teddy,&#8221; Donatelli said.It&#8217;s possible his return to the AHL is brief. Pittsburgh has three regular defensemen injured and a fourth &#8212; newcomer Erik Gudbranson &#8212; held up in the immigration process after a trade from the Vancouver Canucks. That meant Pittsburgh had to call up Zach Trotman in order to have six blueliners for a game on Tuesday.Pittsburgh currently has the minimum 12 forwards on its roster. Gudbranson&#8217;s arrival could trigger a swap with Trotman returning to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and a forward &#8212; like Blueger &#8212; going back up.Regardless of how it plays out, Blueger remains appreciative of his opportunity with Pittsburgh despite the disappointment of being sent down.&#8220;It was a dream come true to play and score and I got better as the games went along,&#8221; Blueger said. &#8220;An awesome experience overall.&#8221;Wideman used to changeA day after he was traded to the Pittsburgh organization for Jean-Sebastien Dea, defenseman Chris Wideman greeted his new teammates and skated in Tuesday&#8217;s practice.New faces, new system and new team &#8212; a familiar process for the 29-year-old Wideman. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton marks his fifth team this season, which includes NHL stops with Ottawa, Edmonton and Florida and time in the AHL with Springfield.&#8220;I&#8217;ve done it a few times this year. I&#8217;m pretty good at packing it up, unpacking and meeting new guys,&#8221; he said.Wideman faced Wilkes-Barre/Scranton several times when he played with the Binghamton Senators from 2012-15. While he said he doesn&#8217;t know many of the current Penguins, he does recall what it&#8217;s like to face Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.&#8220;I remember years ago it was always tough to come and play in Wilkes-Barre and win games there. It will be nice to be on the other side of that,&#8221; Wideman said.The addition of Wideman, who is an offensive threat on the blueline, and Blueger, gives Donatelli a pair of weapons to employ as his team pushes for the postseason.Wideman, Donatelli said, will see plenty of time on the power play and will help with moving the puck out of the defensive zone, among other things.&#8220;A real good pick up for us on the back end. We&#8217;re real excited about him,&#8221; Donatelli said.Farewell to DeaTuesday&#8217;s practice was the first without Dea, who departed Monday for the Florida organization. He was assigned to Springfield, with the Thunderbirds set to visit Mohegan Sun Arena twice at the end of March.Donatelli said Dea&#8217;s loss hurts, but he&#8217;s happy for him to have another opportunity.&#8220;He&#8217;s been with us a long time. He&#8217;s a great kid on and off the ice,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;We&#8217;re happy for him and hopefully he can get a shot at playing in Florida.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Pittsburgh Penguins' Teddy Blueger (53) can't get his stick on a rebound in front of Calgary Flames goaltender Mike Smith (41) with Noah Hanifin (55) defending during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_AP19047729820211.jpg</photo0><caption0>Pittsburgh Penguins' Teddy Blueger (53) can't get his stick on a rebound in front of Calgary Flames goaltender Mike Smith (41) with Noah Hanifin (55) defending during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom Veneskytvenesky@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div>

Time with Pittsburgh bittersweet for Penguins forward Teddy Blueger