Near the end of training camp, Mike Sullivan and other coaches meet with prospects for exit interviews before they are assigned to the minors or back to their team in college, juniors, or Europe.
Coaches talk with players about what kind of camp they had, what they'd like to see them work on this season, all of those kinds of things.
"One of the things that I took from camp from Mike Sullivan in one of my meetings was to find out what I want to do and who I want to be as a player," rookie forward prospect Jake Lucchini told me this week.
In those meetings, Sullivan will sometimes point toward a player or two who currently play in Pittsburgh as someone who the prospect could look up to and try to model parts of their game after.
The player in Pittsburgh Sullivan suggested for Lucchini makes a lot of sense.
"He mentioned Bryan Rust," Lucchini said. "He mentioned that Rust is a guy that can play up in the lineup and down in the lineup, for me that's a good guy to look up to and model my game around."
That sort of Rust-like role is one 24-year-old Lucchini has taken on in his first full season of professional hockey in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
A month into the season, the 5-11, 183-pound Lucchini has spent about just as much time on the first line as he has on the fourth line, and he's played on both lines in between as well. He's a guy who can score like a top-line guy, as seen when he put up 45 goals and 59 assists in 164 collegiate games at Michigan Tech. His college coaches often praised his strong-two way game, which has him able to fill in that more defensive bottom-six role as well.
"I want to be a player that can play offensively and defensively," Lucchini said. "That's what I want to gear myself toward, is to be a guy who can play on the first line and play big minutes and also bring energy on the fourth line if that's what the coach wants. Just try to fill any role I can in order to play is my goal."
Lucchini is also versatile positionally, and is capable of playing both wing and center and has already done both this season. He's primarily played wing this season, but saw more time at center during his 15-game stint in Wilkes-Barre at the end of last season after Michigan Tech's season ended. He said he's comfortable at either position, but that center at this level is a bit "different" because "guys are just so much bigger and stronger."
Lucchini took on a big role during that stint last season, racking up six goals and an assist in those 15 games as Wilkes-Barre was in a tight playoff push. He said he still feels like a rookie this season, but those games were a big factor toward preparing for this season.
"I think just playing there and learning the day-to-day lifestyle is huge," he said. "It's a lot different from college, you play a lot more games. It helped me a lot, I felt more comfortable coming in this year. Training camp was kind of different, I had never been through an NHL training camp. That was a learning experience for me, something that I've never experienced before. I think last year helped me a lot heading into this year."
This season, Lucchini has scored three goals and three assists in 14 games, just about as many games as he played last season. In nearly the same span he has one fewer point overall, but three fewer goals. One of those goals came this week in Lehigh Valley:
He had other good chances in that Lehigh Valley game, like this move to get past a Phantoms defenseman:
Lucchini not too concerned with how often he shows up on the scoresheet, he's just looking to perform well in his given role, whatever it may be that game.
"I don't really set a lot of goals for myself in that regard," he said. "I just want to come to the rink everyday and help the team win. I feel like I have to be a little more consistent in that area. There are times I'll put points up, sometimes I won't. I'm not too worried about that. If we're winning and I'm having a positive impact on our team that's all I need to do and all I ask for in regards to myself, is to help the team win. If that's goals, if I'm doing well on the scoresheet that's great, then if I'm not hopefully I can pick things up defensively and things like that."
One of the more visible developments in Lucchini since he joined the Penguins organization didn't happen on the ice.
When Lucchini first came to Pittsburgh as a free agent development camp invite in the summer of 2018, he looked like a hockey player. He had the long hair, and he was missing a couple of teeth:
Since then, he's gotten his teeth fixed and cut off the hair. Seriously, his headshots from that season and this season look like two different people.
"I got my hair cut last October then I got my teeth in in December," he laughed. "In those three months, I completely changed."
The big question Lucchini has been getting this season has been if the hair will ever make a return.
"That's a good question," he said. "I've been asked that a lot, I don't know. Right now I feel like I need to get it cut, it's at one of those awkward stages. We'll see what happens."
____________________
THE ROSTER MOVES
• Sam Lafferty was recalled by Pittsburgh on Nov. 6.
THE INJURIES
• Forward Thomas Di Pauli is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He last played on Oct. 13.
• Forward Ben Sexton has been dealing with an upper-body injury since camp.
• Forward Jamie Devane is out with a lower-body injury. As of Oct. 11, he was expected to be out four to six weeks. He has not yet played this season.
• Forward Kasper Bjorkqvist is out for the next six months after undergoing knee surgery, effectively ending his season. He last played on Oct. 19.
• Defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph hasn’t played since Oct. 19 and is out for an extended period with mononucleosis.
THE NEWS
• The team had a different goal song on Saturday, Kickstart My Heart by Motley Crue. Before that the team was still using Party Hard. It's interesting, because when I asked Lafferty last month what he would choose as his goal song he chose Kickstart My Heart.
• The team also installed a new ribbon board in the arena:
New Ribbon Board. New lighting system. New goal song? We’ll see what you think tonight! pic.twitter.com/2i9SUKNCS3
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) November 9, 2019
THE GAMES
• Nov. 6: at Lehigh Valley, 4-2 loss
Lucchini opened the scoring on Wednesday with his third of the season 2:21 into the first period, and the Phantoms' Andy Welinski answered to tie the game 1:38 later.
Greg Carey gave the Phantoms their first lead of the game 2:53 into the second period, then Ryan Haggerty evened the score 2:34 later. With 1:40 left in the second period, Kyle Criscuolo gave the Phantoms the lead with the eventual game-winning goal.
Criscuolo scored an empty net goal in the final minute to seal the win.
Casey DeSmith took the loss with 27 saves on 30 shots.
Wilkes-Barre went 0-for-3 on the power play, and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
• Nov. 8: at Utica, 2-1 win
The Comets' Mitch Eliot gave his team the early lead just 58 seconds into the game, six seconds into a Penguins penalty kill.
Zach Trotman tied the game 14:46 into the third period with a power play tally, his first goal of the season. Jordy Bellerive scored 34 seconds later to give the Penguins the lead, and the goal stood as the game-winner.
Dustin Tokarski picked up his first win of the season with 22 saves on 23 shots.
The Penguins went 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
• Nov. 9: vs. Syracuse, 2-0 win
Andrew Agozzino scored his fourth goal of the season 3:53 into the game, the only goal of the first period.
After a scoreless second period, Trotman added a shorthanded goal midway through the third, his second goal in as many games. Trotman led the team in shots in the game, with four.
DeSmith picked up the win with his perfect 35-save shutout.
The Penguins went 0-for-2 on the power play and a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill
THE LEADERS
• Goals: Noesen, 11 in 14 games
• Assists: Agozzino, 9 in 13 games
• Points: Noesen, 15 in 14 games
THE COMBINATIONS
Sam Miletic — Andrew Agozzino — Stefan Noesen
Andreas Martinsen — Joseph Blandisi — Adam Johnson
Justin Almeida — Oula Palve — Anthony Angello
Jordy Bellerive — Chase Berger — Jake Lucchini
David Warsofsky — Macoy Erkamps
Jon Lizotte — Zach Trotman
Michael Kim — Kevin Czuczman
THE STANDINGS
• After this week, the Penguins’ record is 7-5-1-1. They remain sixth in the eight-team Atlantic Division, but are only two points out of second place.
• The power play sits at 21.8 percent, sixth in the 31-team league. The penalty kill is operating at 75.4 percent overall, 27th in the league.
THE SCHEDULE
• The Penguins will have three home games this week against the three teams directly above them in the Atlantic Division standings. They'll host the Hershey Bears (7-5-2-1) on Wednesday, Springfield Thunderbirds (9-6) on Friday, and Lehigh Valley Phantoms (6-2-1-4) on Saturday.
GOALS OF THE WEEK
Just an unreal goal here. The spin move by Haggerty to Johnson, then the one-timer backhand shot? Maybe they should play facing backward all the time:
Agozzino turned his foot to deflect the feed from Noesen. In this one you can also see the results of the new ribbon lights at the arena:
SAVE OF THE WEEK
DeSmith's shutout was the Penguins' first of the season:
THE PODCAST
• Lucchini is the third podcast of the season. If you haven't listened to these yet this season, they're good. The new segment on bad movies is great:
WILKES-BARRE FUN THING
Angello and Lucchini paid a visit to a library:
