P.O. Joseph impresses in NHL
Former Charlottetown Islander earns rave reviews in Pittsburgh
“He’s a real good player and he’s a great kid. He’s got an insatiable appetite for the game, and we can see him improving right in front of our eyes with every minute that he plays out there.” Mike Sullivan
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach
Sidney Crosby really likes what he sees from PierreOlivier (P.O.) Joseph.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have been hit hard with injuries on defence early in the season, so Joseph found himself thrown into the deep end as an NHL rookie.
The former Charlottetown Islanders captain made his Penguins debut Jan. 22, and by his fifth game on Saturday, he was setting up Crosby for the overtime winner against the New York Rangers to give him three assists on the night.
"Defensively he's got a good stick and he makes a lot of good reads and gets pucks through from the point," Crosby said in a post-game media session.
"Those are all little details that take adjusting to, but I think that he's gained confidence with every game.
“He's been kind of thrown into situations just based on our situation. Sometimes when you're thrown into scenarios like that, you don't think as much, and you can just see with every game he's gotten better and better.
He had another great game tonight. He was good defensively and created a lot offensively as well."
Joseph's precocious play also earned rave reviews from Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, who gushed about his potential and how much he already trusts the 21-yearold in different game situations.
"I thought P.O. had a great game," Sullivan said.
"He was competing defensively, and he has great offensive instincts. You can see some of the plays that he makes, and we used him on the power play. He made some real nice outlet passes under pressure. We believe this kid's going to get better and better.
"He's a real good player and he's a great kid. He's got an insatiable appetite for the game, and we can see him improving right in front of our eyes with every minute that he plays out there. Tonight, we went down to five defencemen so early in the game, I think he played close to 27 minutes tonight if I'm not mistaken, which for a young player in this league is an exorbitant amount of minutes. He handled it extremely well.
"We're really excited about P.O. He's a good player and we knew he was real close coming into this year and he's earning his time. I think tonight might've been his best game of the season for us, when we needed it."
Defenceman John Marino (26:03) was the only Pittsburgh player to see more ice time than Joseph (25:58) against the Rangers and the gap between them was microscopic.
When asked about his exploits, Joseph still sounded awestruck by everything happening around him.
"You just try to keep the game simple and good things happen," said Joseph, whose four assists put him in the top 10 of the NHL rookie scoring lead.
"I think it's not only the coaching staff; it's the players as well. There are a lot of players that have been in the league for a long time, so they know what it's like, but the message is pretty simple – just have fun out there. That's what we've been doing."
With the injuries to other Pittsburgh defencemen bound to keep Joseph in the lineup for the short term, more of that low-risk, mistake-free play might just help him stick around for even longer than first planned.
"Unfortunately, we've had to deal with this right from the start of the season, basically, so I think we've handled it the right way when we've been in those situations and tried to simplify things," Crosby said.
"I think when we get on our toes like we did in the third period, even with a shortened bench, that's when we're at our best. We did a really good job of playing forward and making sure that we got good zone time."