ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It's a common occurrence for P.O Joseph to stay on the ice long after the conclusion of practice or a morning skate to get some additional work in. He spends so much extra time on the ice that the vast majority of his teammates have not only departed the ice for the locker room, but also undressed from their gear, showered, and went off to grab lunch before he's done grinding.
Joseph typically spends that extra ice time working with Kris Letang, but because Letang did not participate in the Penguins' morning skate Friday (and did not play in the evening due to illness), Joseph instead worked with Teddy Blueger.
It just so happens that the extra work Joseph put in with Blueger following the morning skate paid immediate dividends in the Penguins' 6-3 win over the Ducks here at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Friday night.
Becoming the eighth rookie defenseman in franchise history to do so, and the first to do it since Olli Maatta on March 6, 2014, Joseph scored twice against the Ducks. And let me emphasize that these goals weren't just long-distance shots that took a wonky bounce on their way to finding twine, they were true goal-scorer's goals. The kind of goals that remind you why you love hockey so much in the first place.
His first tally of the night came less than halfway through the first period to open the scoring:
Grip it. Rip it.
With the Ducks' defensive coverage collapsing around their own net, a bunch of ice opened up pretty much anywhere and everywhere above the hashmarks. As the puck was being worked below the goal line, Joseph took advantage of the defensive coverage and shrunk the zone by creeping further away from the blue line through the middle of the ice. A passing lane opened up, and Blueger threaded a pass right to Joseph in the high slot.
In rather savvy fashion, Joseph received Blueger's pass out to the side in his hip pocket, primed and ready to fire immediately. And that's just what he did. No dusting the puck off. No stickhandling to speak of. Catch. Shoot.
After the game, I asked Joseph if all of that was by design. It turns out, shooting quickly without unnecessary movement was exactly what Joseph and Blueger worked on following Friday's morning skate.
"It’s pretty funny because that’s what we practiced — Teddy and I — this morning," Joseph would say with a big smile. "At the level like that, people are coming fast, so as fast as I can try to put the puck on net for our forwards, the best it is. I guess I just got lucky that the puck went in."
Nope. That wasn't luck. It was fundamental hockey.
"We’re asking our defenseman to be active in the offense, both off the rush and in the offensive zone," Mike Sullivan said after the victory. "We just have to do it in a calculated way. It’s hard to generate offense in today’s game in the absence of your defensemen being a part of it. We have strategies that we work with these guys daily to try to be predictable for one another."
That element Sullivan spoke of was present once again on Joseph's second of the night, coming in the latter stages of the second period to give the Penguins a 4-1 lead:
As Evgeni Malkin pounced on the loose puck to sustain possession in the offensive zone, Joseph dashed through the gaping hole in the middle of the ice before he was hit with a pass in stride. Attacking downhill, Joseph did have to stickhandle twice to get the puck in shooting position, but none of it was unnecessary. Once the puck was primed for blastoff, he instantly drilled a shot past John Gibson's blocker side.
"I think it was just opportunities that were created by the forwards," Joseph said of his goals. "Good play by Teddy there and a good pass by Geno, so it’s just the opportunities created in front of me and I just had the chance to put it in."
In between his pair of goals, Joseph also picked up the primary assist on Kasperi Kapanen's goal late in the first period, giving him his second three-point performance of his career. The assist was another display of quick decision-making and puck movement on Joseph's part. But when I asked what it felt like for him to have such a productive night, Joseph's team-first mindset shined through.
"I’m just happy that the guys won," Joseph said. "It’s a huge achievement for [Malkin] and I think it’s just a good start of our trip."
Including both goals, Joseph attempted six shots in 19:31 of ice time during all situations throughout the game. Five of them were scoring chances.
"For a guy like P.O to score a couple of goals is huge for us," Sullivan said. "I’m sure he’s thrilled, and when we can get some offensive production from our blue line like that, I think it just makes us that much harder to play against."
