CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Juuso Riikola is a man of few words.
Asked about the reason behind the mustache he brought to the Penguins' training camp: "Just something to talk about."
Asked about adapting to the North American game since his arrival in the NHL: "I think I need to play better."
I followed up, asking what the coaching staff has told him it wants to see for him to finally become a regular.
"Do what I'm good (at)," he said. "Nothing special."
Through Riikola's first three seasons in North America, all with the Penguins' organization, he's yet to find regular playing time for a full season. After appearing in 37 games in his rookie 2018-19 season, he played 36 in 2019-20. After playing two games near the start of last season, Riikola sustained an undisclosed injury Jan. 19 and remained on injured reserve until March 9. When finally healthy, he spent the rest of the year on the taxi squad.
"Juuso got a real stroke of bad luck last year when we got banged up early in the season in that position," Mike Sullivan said earlier this week. "You know, I think Juuso would have had a great opportunity to play and play a significant amount of games, and he ended up getting hurt himself. Unfortunately, it robbed him of that opportunity."
With the left side of the depth chart on defense including Brian Dumoulin, Mike Matheson and Marcus Pettersson, with P.O Joseph waiting in the wings, it's hard to envision where Riikola might fit.
"There's a lot of guys," Riikola said. "Basically, coaches say that whoever plays the best is in the lineup. So that's how it's going to go."
Riikola admitted that last season was frustrating, adding that it feels like you're "out of the team" when out with an injury. He said that he worked that whole season to get back in shape, and that in his offseason training he focused on "getting better at everything."
"You try to get in better shape, then you can run a marathon if you want."
Asked if he really could run a marathon, he answered "Yeah," with a slight smile, but did say that he's never run a marathon before.
"Now you have something to talk about," he added.
While Riikola's first three years in the Penguins' organization didn't quite go as planned, he said that it didn't get his spirits down, noting that his teammates were a big help in keeping his mood up when he wasn't playing.
"I don't have that problem," he said. "I'm a pretty happy guy. Easy to be around."
The coaching staff takes notice of Riikola's upbeat attitude, too.
"He's a great teammate, I will tell you that," Sullivan said. "He went through a difficult circumstance last year. That's not easy being on the sidelines. All these players want to play, they're proud guys. I thought Juuso handled it extremely well and professionally and was a great teammate along the way. And that doesn't go unnoticed amongst our coaching staff and our management team."
Over these last two days of camp, the Penguins have broken the roster into two groups, with the first group including guys likely to be on the NHL roster and the second group the depth players, though Sullivan stressed that "nothing's etched in stone." Riikola has been skating with the main NHL group in practices, but he again is the odd-man out on the left side, skating on the fourth pairing alongside Mark Friedman.
If Riikola is to get into the lineup, it looks like his best bet might be on the right side, where his primary competition would just be Friedman and Chad Ruhwedel for the spot on the third pairing. Riikola has played on the right side in the past for the Penguins, and would be comfortable filling that role again.
"I've always said whatever they asked me to do, I will do it," he said. "There is some difference between playing right and left side, just how your stick is, obviously. But yeah, I'll do whatever they want me to do."
Sullivan said that Riikola's ability to play on that right side could prove to be a "valuable asset" this season.
"What Juuso has to do is is play to his strengths," he said. "I think he's a guy that skates really well. I think he's a player that can help us on the power play. He can really shoot the puck. He can help us on a breakout using his speed and his stick skills to make that first pass to help us exit our zone. He should have the ability to join the rush."
Sullivan added that he's hoping Riikola's offensive instincts translate into more goals and assists.
The first step would be to get into some actual games, of course, and really give people "something to talk about."
MORE FROM TRAINING CAMP
• Zach Aston-Reese remains sidelined with COVID. Sullivan said that he believes Aston-Reese's case is mild, and said he's not sure of a timeline for Aston-Reese to return.
• Filip Hallander was a full participant in practice after skating in a non-contact jersey on Wednesday.
• Radim Zohorna was also a full participant after missing Wednesday's practice with a non-COVID related illness. He worked with Group 2 rather than the main NHL group, something Sullivan said wasn't so much about his performance.
"It's more of the illness," Sullivan said. "We're just trying to get him back on the ice and see where he's at. We're trying to utilize the practices with the groups that we have, but nothing's etched in stone. Those groups can change, and the players are well aware of that."
• The practice groups otherwise remained the same as Wednesday:
• The Penguins used the following lines and pairings with Group 1, the same combinations that they used on Wednesday:
Jake Guentzel - Jeff Carter - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Danton Heinen
Anthony Angello/Drew O'Connor/Brian Boyle/Dominik Simon rotating
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Mike Matheson - John Marino
Marcus Pettersson - Chad Ruhwedel
Juuso Riikola - Mark Friedman
• I asked Danton Heinen after practice about that combination he's on with Teddy Blueger and Brock McGinn.
"They're two smart players," he said. "They can make plays, too. So it's been good. I'm just trying to learn from Teddy, get to know the systems. It's been good so far."
• Practice was primarily five-on-five work, with special teams work at the end.
• The top power play was primarily Kris Letang, Marcus Pettersson, Bryan Rust, Jeff Carter, Jake Guentzel
• The second unit was primarily Brian Dumoulin, Chad Ruhwedel, Jason Zucker, Evan Rodrigues, Kasperi Kapanen
• Kapanen and Rust switched units at times.
• There was a moment in the special teams work where Kapanen got heated at Matheson for something that had happened during a drill, and Kapanen got in Matheson's face yelling and shoved him once.
• The mood was light toward the end of practice, with guys celebrating their goals extra hard as usual as the session is winding down. At one point Zucker jumped into Rust and Guentzel after a goal, with all three of them ending up laughing on the ice.
TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS
• Group 2 used the following lines and pairings in their practice:
Sam Lafferty - Radim Zohorna - Kasper Bjorkqvist
Sam Poulin - Michael Chaput - Nathan Legare
Filip Hallander - Jordy Bellerive - Valtteri Puustinen
Jonathan Gruden - Felix Robert - Kyle Olson
P.O Joseph - Taylor Fedun
Cam Lee - Matt Bartkowski
Niclas Almari/Will Reilly/Mitch Reinke rotating
• One power-play unit used by Group 2 was P.O Joseph, Taylor Fedun, Zohorna, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Sam Lafferty
• Another power-play unit used by Group 2 was Cam Lee, Matt Bartkowski, Sam Poulin, Nathan Legare, Michael Chaput
• One penalty-killing unit used by Group 2 was Jordy Bellerive, Hallander, Niclas Almari, Mitch Reinke (with Valtteri Puustinen rotating in)
• Another penalty-killing unit used by Group 2 was Will Reilly, Kyle Olson, Jonathan Gruden, Felix Robert
• The NHL gave teams the option this year to end preseason games with a shootout, which wouldn't count for the outcome of the game unless the game went to overtime beforehand like usual. I asked Sullivan if there are any plans to get that shootout work in after any of the preseason games.
"Well, we didn't do it in the first one," he said. "That's something we discussed as a coaching staff. The question I'm trying to answer is, 'Is there any benefit?' In other words, what's the gain versus the risk? Is there an injury risk? Potentially. And what's to gain from it? So depending on what our lineup looks like, we may make that decision. And it also has to be a cooperative decision with the other team, as well. We'll take that on a game-by-game basis."
• Louis Domingue's new Penguins pads arrived on Wednesday. As of Thursday, he was still using his old Flames mask:
PENGUINS_EQUIPMENT / INSTAGRAM
• Alex D'Orio, who is in Wilkes-Barre after being included in the first round of cuts, had his new mask for the season arrive on Wednesday. It's a pixelated design with the cartoon penguins from the Madagascar movies:
PENGUINS_EQUIPMENT / INSTAGRAM
