'It's a dream': Joseph brothers couldn't pass up opportunity to play together with Blues

From Bob, Barclay and Bill Plager to Brian, Rich and Ron Sutter, the St. Louis Blues are no strangers to having brothers on their roster.

In July, they added another family tree to their franchise history, making a trade with the Ottawa Senators for forward Mathieu Joseph, 27, and then signing free-agent defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph, 25, his brother.

As with all siblings, they have great reverence for one another, but there’s also the expected rivalry.

Plenty of examples of both popped up when the Joseph brothers sat down with The Athletic for an hour-long Zoom call recently.

You’ll learn a lot more about them, including which numbers they’ll be wearing this season and why. And you’ll also pick up on the fact they can hardly contain their excitement about this opportunity.

So sit back and enjoy our chat with the newest Blues brothers!

Note: The conversation has been edited lightly for length and clarity.

Jeremy: It’s really nice to meet you guys! Thanks for doing this! So where are you? What city? Whose house?

Mathieu: We’re in Brossard (Quebec, Canada). We’ve lived together in the summer for about three years now, and we’ve enjoyed it.

Pierre-Olivier: In the past, we’d only see each other for three months the whole year in the summer, so we were like, “We might as well stay together.” But now, I feel like we’re going to get our own places if we’re going to see each other all the time, haha!

Jeremy: I was going to ask about that. What are your living arrangements going to be like in St. Louis?

Pierre-Olivier: We’re going to live together. We’ve talked to a couple guys about renting their house. I played with Chad Ruhwedel in Pittsburgh and his wife is from St. Louis, so they have a house there, but Kasperi Kapanen is living there now. So no luck so far, but we’ll keep looking.

Jeremy: What have you heard about St. Louis?

Mathieu: I played with Brady Tkachuk in Ottawa and we actually went to his place in St. Louis for dinner last year, so I got to see a little bit of the area. Brady loves going back when he can, and honestly, every guy we’ve been talking to with the Blues loves playing there. I remember my first game in St. Louis. I was impressed with the song the crowd sings in the third period …

Jeremy: Country Roads?

Mathieu: Yeah, that’s it! I thought that was pretty cool the first time I saw it. I can tell the fans love their team, love the organization and love the city, so I’m definitely excited to be part of the community.

Jeremy: OK, Pierre … should I call you Pierre?

Mathieu: Never! Haha! It’s just P.O.

Pierre-Olivier: Actually, I got to the point where I don’t even care anymore.

Jeremy: Well P.O., tell me something good about living with your brother and something annoying.

Pierre-Olivier: Where do I start on the last one? No, it’s been good. He’s someone that I’ve been looking up to for so long. We work out together, we’re on the ice together, we’re on the golf course together. Everything we do is pretty much together. So it’s not really living with my brother, it’s living with my best buddy. He knows me by heart. He knows when to give me some motivation, and he knows when to give me some space.

Mathieu: I do get annoying, though. I talk too much, so sometimes I’ll say something and he doesn’t want to talk. I’ll just give him a face like “I get it.” But no, it’s been so easy. We don’t get on each other’s nerves very often and we share responsibility very well in the house. He’s a great cook!

Jeremy: P.O., what do you cook?

Pierre-Olivier: Anything and everything. Honestly, it just depends on what we have in the fridge. My crepes are something that I usually cook for us on Sunday. I do barbecue. Actually, Matt’s been pretty good this summer helping out on the barbecue side of the game.

Mathieu: I’ve been learning barbecue this year …

Pierre-Olivier: It’s nice not to be the only one cooking.

Jeremy: So growing up, did you guys ever play on the same team, and did you ever dream about playing on the same NHL team one day?

Pierre-Olivier: Back then, playing on the same team at any level wasn’t possible because of our ages. So every year, it was just trying to get to the next level.

Mathieu: I remember being mad one year in junior hockey. I was playing with the Saint John Sea Dogs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. That was P.O.’s junior hockey draft year, and he was projected to go in the second or third round. He wasn’t taken in the second round, so when the third round rolled around, I’m like, “Saint John is going to pick him up and we’re going to play together.” But Saint John picked someone else, and then in the fifth round, he got picked by Charlottetown. I was super happy for him, but I remember being disappointed that Saint John didn’t draft him. That was the first time where I thought maybe we had a chance to play with one another. But then when we both got drafted in the NHL, we were like, “Wow, that would be cool if we could find a place that we could play together.”

Pierre-Olivier: We were even thinking about the possibility of it happening at the end of our careers in Europe, when we’re 37, 38 years old, haha!

Jeremy: So Mathieu got drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fourth round of the 2015 NHL Draft, and then won a Stanley Cup in 2021. P.O., what was it like watching that?

Pierre-Olivier: Yeah, it was a little bit of a s— show because of COVID. We were quarantining in Montreal and the next thing you know Mathieu is going into the Stanley Cup Final against Montreal. Tampa was up three games to one and headed back home for Game 5, and our parents couldn’t go because of work. They asked me if I wanted to go and I said, “Yeah!” But I remember there was a tropical storm in Tampa and flights were getting canceled. The only one available was from Montreal to L.A., then L.A. to Orlando (Fla.), and then drive 2 ½ hours to Tampa. I left at 6:30 p.m. and I got to Matt’s place at 10 a.m. the next day. I slept all day long, but then I had the chance to see him win the Cup. I had the chills, and that was a life memory that’s never going away. But at the same time, I was mad at him that he won it right in my face.

Mathieu: Hopefully we win it together one day!

Jeremy: So Mathieu, P.O. got drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft and then traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2019 in the Phil Kessel deal. How much have you been pulling for him?

Mathieu: I was probably more happy that he got drafted than when I got drafted. When he got to the NHL, I was trying to help him out with some things. With me being a forward and him being a defenseman, it was easy to talk about our game because what a forward sees and what a defenseman sees are different perspectives.

Pierre-Olivier: We got the NHL app a few years ago and we watch each other’s games when we can. But sometimes with the app, the state you’re in doesn’t allow you to watch his game …

Mathieu: Or we’d be playing at the same time. I guess it’ll be easier to watch his games this year, ha! But no, it’s been fun to follow each other’s careers. I’ve had some ups and downs that he’s helped me with, and I’ve helped him, too.

Jeremy: What’s something specific that you helped each other with during your career?

Mathieu: For me, the hardest part of the NHL is that it’s such a routine. It’s the same day every day. So if it’s not going well, it’s the same day that’s not going well. We both are guys that don’t really take life too seriously. We’re here to have fun, but sometimes I get away from that. I’ve had some downs that I felt like I couldn’t get out of and P.O. always has the right words. I always say he’s a really good therapist because all our friends ask him for advice because he’s such a good listener.

Pierre-Olivier: For me, sometimes I’m too careless in what I do, and he knows what I’m capable (of). He’s always there to remind me and push me. It might be lifting a little bit two pounds heavier in the gym that pushes me to be a more competitive person. That’s something I’ve learned a lot from him.

Mathieu: I’ve got to say, too, he’s a very generous guy and thinks about a lot of people before him. In this league, you want to be a good teammate and feel like you’re family. But selfishly, you also have to think a little bit about yourself — how I perform and how I need to be better. Sometimes P.O. forgets about that part, being too unselfish. I tell him, “You’ve got to shoot the puck.” Like I said, you don’t want to bother other teammates.

Pierre-Olivier: But at the same time, it bothers people that I’m not being more selfish.

Mathieu: Exactly! So sometimes I have to remind him, “I know you’re a good guy, but you’ve got to think about how you want to play well.” That’s going to build confidence and help everything else.

Jeremy: So where and when was the first NHL game that you played against each other?

Mathieu: It was in Pittsburgh last year.

Pierre-Olivier: Once the game started, it was Pittsburgh against Ottawa and not us against each other. But I could constantly hear him talking and talking …

Mathieu: He didn’t answer me once …

Pierre-Olivier: Because I know how he is. He’s just trying to get into my head. Playing tennis back when we were 12 years old, it was the same thing — just yapping.

Jeremy: Tell me about the high-sticking penalty in that game. P.O., you hit Mathieu with your stick, but you also got yourself, and you both went to the penalty box. What happened?

Pierre-Olivier: I saw him coming, but when I tried to get out of the way, I hit him in the face and then hit myself. We turned around and the referee saw both of us with our hands in our face. I was bleeding, but I didn’t want the ref to see that because then they would have reviewed it and they would have taken away the penalty on Mathieu. When I went into the penalty box, my towel was completely full of blood, but I had to hide it. He was a little mad.

Mathieu: It was so funny!

Jeremy: The reaction of your parents (Frantzi and France Joseph), who were at the game, was priceless. What did you think when you saw the video?

Pierre-Olivier: It was funny. The camera was perfectly on them at the right moment and it showed their personality. They know it’s part of the game, so as long as we’re not dropping the gloves, they know how competitive we are.

Jeremy: What’s it been like for your parents to watch you go through this journey together?

Mathieu: It’s been pretty cool. They get asked all the time, “Did you know your two kids were going to play in the NHL?” No, they just wanted us to work as hard as we could.

Pierre-Olivier: I remember they sat us down one time and said, “If you guys are going to play at a competitive level, we are ready to help you, but are you ready to do it for yourselves?”

Mathieu: They said, “We’re not going to push you guys to do it. But if you’re giving us 50 percent, then we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to spend that much money on it. You’re wasting time, and we would like for you to do something else.” I remember my mom asking P.O. when he got drafted to the NHL, “Do you still like hockey?” I’m like, “He just got drafted 23rd overall!”

Pierre-Olivier: I’m like, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I like it.”

Jeremy: So Mathieu, you were traded to the Blues on July 2, and then P.O. signed with the team on July 3. How did all of this go down behind the scenes?

Pierre-Olivier: I started talking to different teams on July 1 and St. Louis was one of them. Then on July 2, we were sitting on the couch watching tennis on TV and Matt got a text from Ottawa telling him to call them.

Mathieu: I knew I was getting traded way before then, though.

Pierre-Olivier: But he didn’t know it was going to be St. Louis. So he’s got the phone on speaker and they tell him it’s the Blues. Well, he knew I was talking to St. Louis, too, so he gave me a little wink. So I talked to my agent and told him that it would be special playing with Mathieu and whatever offer was on the table from the Blues, I would just take it. My agent asked me about pushing it a little bit, but I told him that the chance I had was not going to happen often. So in a matter of 30 seconds, I was with Pittsburgh and he was with Ottawa, and the next thing you know we’re both in St. Louis.

Mathieu: We gave each other a big hug! Then we called our parents and said, “Sit down together, we’ve got something to tell you!” My dad was super happy, and my mom had a little bit of tears, knowing they won’t have two opposite jerseys now.

Jeremy: So what was that like, Mathieu, knowing that P.O. picked the Blues to make it happen?

Mathieu: To even know there was a possibility, I was so excited. I was pinching myself, like, “Oh my gosh, this is actually happening.”

Pierre-Olivier: Last week, the Blues sent us some new gear. We had two practices that day, and it was cool when we put both of our bags in the trunk and they were both “St. Louis Blues.” We love the colors already, and it’s fun to see Mathieu in the same logo as me.

Mathieu: No one knows yet, but we’ve actually picked our numbers.

Jeremy: Can we break some news here?

Mathieu: Of course! Our family number is No. 7 because our dad wore No. 7 his entire life. So I picked 71.

Pierre-Olivier: I went with the double seven, No. 77.

Jeremy: Nice! When you get your last name stitched on the back of both jerseys, are you going to get “Joseph” or your first initial and Joseph?

Mathieu: That’s a good question! He’s saying, “Are you going to have M. Joseph and P.O. Joseph?” When there’s two names that are the same on the team, you have the option. Like the Sedins wore “H. Sedin” and “D. Sedin.”

Pierre-Olivier: That’s true! I didn’t even think about that.

(Editor’s note: After this interview, the Blues announced that the brothers will both wear just “Joseph” on their jerseys this season. 

Jeremy: OK, I want to tell Blues fans what kind of players they’re getting in you guys. P.O., tell me about Mathieu, and vice versa.

Pierre-Olivier: They’re getting a fast skater, a competitive player, a guy who loves to play defensively, but I know he’s talented enough to put points on the board. But mainly a guy, they’re getting someone who plays with passion and plays for his teammates. He has a lot of character and that definitely helps the people around him work harder and become better players.

Mathieu: One of his biggest assets, his hockey IQ, is above average. He has good instinct offensively, and when he has confidence, he’s extremely fast and super dangerous on the ice. He’s an extremely smart player and how he outsmarts the opponent was annoying when I was playing against him. He’s also been very well-liked everywhere he’s been, and he brings tons of positivity around the room.

Jeremy: So when I’m watching practice and there’s an intense battle in the corner, am I going to know right away who it is without looking at the numbers?

Mathieu: 100 percent!

Pierre-Olivier: If we’re on different teams in camp, it’s going to be a compete level that’s as high as possible. It’s been that way since I was born. It’s going to be a continuation of pushing each other on and off the ice.

Mathieu: I’m so excited to have someone work with me on my game before and after practice. To be able to do it with my brother, it’s going to help each other for sure.

Jeremy: Does it seem real yet?

Pierre-Olivier: It’s a dream! I don’t think we’ll really comprehend it until we’re on the same ice together and being in front of the fans in St. Louis.

Mathieu: Hopefully we can help the Blues be a competitive team with our performance and our personalities. I told my dad, “Hopefully we can have a good season and enjoy it in St. Louis and play a couple of years there!”

(Photo of Mathieu Joseph with the Senators and Pierre-Olivier Joseph with the Penguins in January 2023: Joe Sargent / NHLI via Getty Images)