CRANBERRY, Pa. — When the NHL released its hotel assignments in the bubble for the 24 teams playing this summer, Hotel X became the subject of a lot of social media attention for the number of rivals staying in the same hotel: The Penguins, Flyers, Capitals, Bruins, and Lightning.
One of the more friendly rivalries of the Hotel X players is that of the Penguins top defense prospect, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, and his older brother, Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph.
Pierre-Olivier, 21, is set to be one of the Penguins’ Black Ace defensemen on the expanded playoff roster. Mathieu, 23, split time between the Lightning and AHL Syracuse Crunch this season and could suit up for Tampa in the playoffs.
Pierre-Olivier spoke of the friendly rivalry between the two when he appeared on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s podcast this season. Being so close in age, the two faced off 11 times in the QMJHL when Pierre-Olivier played for the Charlottetown Islanders and Mathieu was with the Saint John Sea Dogs.
“I don’t like playing against him. I don’t like playing against him,” Pierre-Olivier said. “We played against each other so much in juniors because he was in the same division. He was always so much competition. And both teams were really good, so when we played against each other it was a war on the ice.”
Pierre-Olivier said that his mother gave them one rule for when they played against each other: No fighting.
“The first game we played we had a double-minor at the end of the game,” he said. “He was on top of me, I grabbed his leg, and then he punched me in the face. A bunch of stuff happened like that. It’s just funny.”
The two have faced off in a professional game once, when Wilkes-Barre and Syracuse played this season during Mathieu’s stint in the AHL in February. Mathieu’s team came out on top, 4-3, but Pierre-Olivier won some of the one-on-one battles with his brother:
At one moment in that game, both Pierre-Olivier and Mathieu were in their respective penalty boxes (not for any infractions against each other) and were standing up, chirping each other from behind the glass.
Brotherly love ❤️
Brothers Mathieu and Pierre-Olivier Joseph faced off against each other for the first time in their pro careers on Friday night. pic.twitter.com/7eWDXlZuOB
— AHL (@TheAHL) February 29, 2020
If Tampa and Pittsburgh meet up in the playoffs, Pierre-Olivier is looking forward to reigniting the rivalry.
“Once you get into playoff time, I don’t know if you’re really brothers or enemies,” Pierre-Olivier said on a video call with reporters on Thursday. “We’ll see about the future. For now, we’re friendly until stuff gets a little more serious. I don’t think I’ll be texting or calling him or anything like that. We’ll be enemies, I’ll be cheering for Pittsburgh and he’ll be cheering for Tampa. … In playoff time, everybody is your enemy and nobody is your friend or brother.”
Even if Pierre-Olivier’s first opportunity at an NHL game doesn’t come this summer, there’s still a lot he can take from this training camp experience.
“As long as you’re here, you want to gain some experience,” he said. “You just look around, you gain as much as you can and look to grow yourself not just as a hockey player but as a person as well. You just learn every day how to be a pro with these guys. That’s what I’m trying to do here for as long as possible, just to take a little bit from a lot of people.”
The Black Aces have been working mainly with skills coach Ty Hennes in this camp, and they worked with him throughout the year in Wilkes-Barre as well.
“He’s unbelievable,” Joseph said of the work with Hennes. “He’s here doing a great job with the guys, and he came a couple of times to Wilkes-Barre. He’s a great guy to be around, he’s always smiling, always having fun on the ice, which is something that I like to do as well. He’s a great person and a great coach, I feel like every time we’re on the ice with him we improve.”
Once the team moves to Toronto on Sunday, the learning is only going to continue for Joseph and the other Black Aces.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been that close to an NHL series,” he said. “It’s different being in the bubble and being that close to the playoffs. It’s a different season. I remember my playoffs and midget and junior, and I feel like here it’s just 100 times harder physically and mentally. I think I’m just going to look at these guys, not get in their way, but just pick stuff here and there that I might be able to use for myself, either in Wilkes-Barre if we get in the playoffs or if I’m here and in the playoffs. It’s a lot of growth. Hopefully I can take this into the future.”
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