One thing Penguins defense prospect Pierre-Olivier Joseph is focusing on in his first professional season is putting on weight.
Over the summer, Joseph lived with his brother Mathieu, a forward in the NHL with the Lightning, and trained with Mathieu's trainer in Tampa. Joseph was able to add 10 pounds to his 6-foot-3 frame, weighing in at 175 pounds for the start of training camp. He's still a lanky guy for his height, but 10 pounds was great progress.
"I felt like it just came naturally to put on some weight, I was happy because it's usually pretty hard," Joseph told me this week of his offseason. "A lot of good food and regular workouts, it's a pretty good combination to gain some weight."
To catch mononucleosis, something that can quickly zap someone's strength, just six games into the AHL season was ... less than ideal. Joseph, 20, missed a month's worth of games from Oct. 20 to Nov. 22, and lost 10 pounds from the illness.
Now that Joseph has been back in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's lineup for almost three weeks, he's feeling like he's regained his strength and doesn't feel like he suffered any setbacks. He worked with team trainers and was able to put those 10 pounds back on after a lot of hard work, and a lot of food.
"I worked my entire summer for putting 10 pounds on, and a month in I lose my 10 pounds," Joseph laughed. "But I gladly put it back, I'm happy to be back at the weight I was before. There's great people to be around here, the people with the team brought me back into the shape I was in before. I don't feel like I'm behind with the way I was in shape before, it's great. I'm feeling great now."
With mono being highly contagious, Joseph had to stay away from the team for a couple of weeks while he recovered, the longest he's ever been away from the game due to illness or injury in his career thus far.
"It was really hard mentally," he said of that time. "I was home for two weeks, just watching the guys on my iPad and my TV playing really good hockey. I was happy that they were on a good streak like that, but it's tough mentally to be out for a month or so.
"I have a great support team over here, we have pretty good chemistry in Wilkes-Barre," he added. "The guys were texting me to see how I was doing. Not being at the rink every day was hard whenever you're going every day and suddenly you don't go at all. It's kind of a shock. I think it was important for me to take care of my health, and being away was the best thing to not give it to anybody else. I don't wish anybody to get that, I was happy to be back."
In Wilkes-Barre, Joseph said it's helped to be able to talk with another teammate who has struggled to put on weight, Adam Johnson. When I spoke with Johnson about adding size in the past, Johnson said that it'd be easy to "just go hammer McDonalds" and probably put on some pounds, but that he really can't be doing that and keep his speed. Joseph has the same mindset. He knows he can get away with eating "junk," but he's still smart about his eating habit.
"A lot of people are jealous of that," he laughed. "We can eat whatever, whenever, and it doesn't really affect our system. But it's really important to eat healthy, and I think all the vitamins and everything that are in healthy food is good for you. As much as possible we try to eat like that."
Adding size and increasing his speed is going to be huge for Joseph as he adjusts to the pro game.
"The second I got here, everything was different," he said. "The way guys prepare, the process of moving from junior to pro hockey is not easy. You see it on the ice, in games and practice, everything is better, everything is more perfect. The speed, the strength of the guys, everything is bigger and better. It's definitely a big adjustment I had to do, there's a lot of people around the team to help with that."
Joseph, who was acquired in the Phil Kessel trade this summer (and let's be honest, is looking like he could end up as the real return in that deal), was never much of a goal-scorer in the QMJHL. In his final season of junior hockey, he scored nine goals in 62 games, along with 38 assists.
This week, Joseph scored his first pro goal off of a great individual effort, to go along with his two assists in his 14 games this season:
"Sadly it was in a tough loss, but I'm happy I got it done, I'm happy," he said. "It would have been better with the 'W' for sure, though."
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THE ROSTER MOVES
• Forward Stefan Noesen was signed to an NHL contract by Pittsburgh on Dec. 2
• Defenseman Zach Trotman was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre on Dec. 6.
• Forward Jan Drozg was recalled from Wheeling on Dec. 7.
• Forward Joseph Blandisi was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre on Dec. 8.
THE INJURIES
• Forward Ben Sexton has been dealing with an upper-body injury since camp.
• Forward Kasper Bjorkqvist is out until May after undergoing knee surgery, effectively ending his season. He last played on Oct. 19.
• Forward Adam Johnson was struck by a puck on Dec. 6 and didn't play in the two games since.
• Defenseman Zach Trotman left the game early on Dec. 8.
THE NEWS
• Defenseman Kevin Czuczman was away from the team this week following the death of his father.
• Casey DeSmith was named the AHL Goaltender of the Month for the month of November.
THE GAMES
• Dec. 6: vs. Texas, 4-3 loss
The Stars' Michael Mersch opened the scoring 7:15 into the game, and Andreas Martinsen (acquired in the Erik Gudbranson trade) tied the game 2:38 later with his first goal of the season.
The Stars increased their lead to 3-1 in the second period with two goals from Joel Kiviranta. Andrew Agozzino scored a power play goal, his 11th goal of the season, to cut the lead to one, and Joseph tied the game 38 seconds later.
Nicholas Caamano scored for the Stars 1:11 into the third period, a goal that would stand as the game-winner.
Trotman led the Penguins with six shots on goal as the Penguins outshot the Stars 29-26.
DeSmith took the loss with 22 saves on 26 shots.
The Penguins went 1-for-5 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
• Dec. 7: vs. Texas, 5-3 loss
In Saturday's rematch with the Stars, the Penguins fell into a 2-0 hole in the first period after two goals from the Stars' Jason Robertson, including one in the final second.
Sam Miletic scored his fourth goal of the season in the middle frame, and David Warsofsky tied the game with a power play goal, his third goal of the season. Trotman scored another power play goal, his third goal of the season, 1:04 later to take the lead. The Stars' Joel L'Esperance scored a power play goal to tie the game before the second intermission.
The Stars took the lead 15 seconds into the third period, and added an empty net goal in the final minute to secure the win.
Trotman led the Penguins with five shots on goal as they they were outshot 33-29.
Emil Larmi took the loss with 28 saves on 32 shots.
The Penguins went 2-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
A brawl ensued at the end of the game and Larmi attempted to fight the Stars' goaltender, but officials broke it up before it happened:
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Finnish Marc-Andre Fleury.
After the game, Larmi tweeted this:
I’ve said I will fight or score a goal during this season. Now I’ve at least tried both. Next I should probably try to stop the puck. That’s my job.
— Emil Larmi (@emillarmi) December 8, 2019
• Dec. 8: at Hershey, 3-2 overtime loss
Miletic opened the scoring at 6:32 with his fifth goal of the season, and Anthony Angello increased the lead to 2-0 1:44 later with his sixth of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Matt Moulson (yes, that Matt Moulson, the former Islander/Sabre) got the Bears on the board at 2:35 of the third period. Hershey's Christian Djoos tied the game at 8:45.
Hershey completed the comeback when Joe Snively scored 2:50 into overtime.
Miletic led with six shots on goal as the Penguins were outshot 35-25.
DeSmith took the loss with 32 saves on 35 shots.
The Penguins went 0-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
THE LEADERS
• Goals: Noesen, 14 in 22 games
• Assists: Warsofsky, 14 in 22 games
• Points: Agozzino, 24 in 24 games
THE COMBINATIONS
Sam Miletic — Andrew Agozzino — Jan Drozg
Jake Lucchini — Joseph Blandisi — Anthony Angello
Thomas Di Pauli — Oula Palve — Ryan Haggerty
Jamie Devane — Chase Berger — Andreas Martinsen
David Warsofsky — Jon Lizotte
Pierre-Olivier Joseph — Zach Trotman
Niclas Almari — Macoy Erkamps
THE STANDINGS
• After this week, the Penguins’ record is 13-8-3-1, third in the eight-team Atlantic Division. They trail the first-place Providence Bruins (16-8-1-2) and Hartford Wolf Pack (14-4-2-5) by five points.
• The power play sits at 20.8 percent, seventh in the 31-team league. The penalty kill is operating at 79.2 percent overall, 22nd in the league.
THE SCHEDULE
• The Penguins will have three road games this week. They'll play the Rochester Americans (15-4-2-2) on Wednesday, and the Cleveland Monsters (12-11-1-1) on Friday and Saturday.
GOALS OF THE WEEK
Martinsen's goal was his first as a Penguin:
Agozzino dropped to one knee:
Trotman quarterbacks the power play in Wilkes-Barre:
Miletic had a beautiful backhand shot:
SAVE OF THE WEEK
DeSmith made this sliding stop against Hershey:
THE PODCAST
• Matt Abt joined Nick Hart on the podcast:
WILKES-BARRE FUN THING
Yes, that's Larmi (who else?) doing the worm at center ice during practice. Note the multiple players skating by, unfazed, as if this is a normal thing to see from him:
I don’t know who this guy is but I think he’s losing it. pic.twitter.com/5Itzx5YcdM
— Emil Larmi (@emillarmi) December 3, 2019
