Aston-Reese talks new puppy, quarantining with Rust and more

On Monday night, Zach Aston-Reese - and his new puppy Carl the Italian greyhound - joined an Instagram Live Q&A session with BarDown associate producer Corwin McCallum. While the topic of the conversation was technically 'Linemates,' a lot more was covered. Here are the highlights…

* Aston-Reese and Carl have been staying with Bryan Rust, his wife Kelsey and their two mini golden retrievers, Cooper and Oliver, at their home. "We've been quarantined up together for the last 2-3 weeks," Aston-Reese said before turning the camera on Carl asleep in his lap. "Then I got this little guy with me. I've been pretty busy and I've had some company."
Instagram from @carltheiggy: Setting up my insta was exhausting ! naptime#
Penguins director of sports science Andy O'Brien talked about the importance of keeping a routine

, and the Rust household starts their day with a unique one.
"We have a game of Settlers of Catan at 10 a.m. every morning with a cup of coffee," Aston-Reese said.
At one point, Rust came into the basement where Zach was filming and jokingly said, "Can you keep it down down here?"
McCallum then asked Rust how isolation with Aston-Reese was going.
"Our surrogate son Zach has been a good housemate," Rust replied with a laugh.
When it comes to staying in shape, the two of them have found a fantastic solution that allows them to both get outside and work on their hockey skills.
"We've actually been playing some street hockey," Rust said. "We ordered some stuff online from DICK'S Sporting Goods and we got out in the street and played a whole bunch of street hockey."
Anyone who grew up playing street hockey remembers yelling "CAR!" any time a vehicle approached and moving the nets to the curb so that it could pass. Rust said not much has changed despite the current situation.
"Surprisingly, there's a lot of delivery people coming back and forth for like DoorDash and Postmates and things like that," Rust said.
When he isn't playing Settlers of Catan or street hockey, Aston-Reese has been taking care of Carl (and posting to the puppy's new Instagram account, @carltheiggy). It's been a lot of work, but fortunately Aston-Reese has the time for it and has been getting help from Bryan and Kelsey.
"I didn't realize how much work it is having a puppy," Aston-Reese said. "That's the one silver lining about all this, not being able to play and having to stay in is that I get to hang out with him. I try to keep my eye on him as much as possible because it seems the second I look away he's peeing or pooping somewhere (laughs)."
While Aston-Reese is taking care of Carl, Rust does some Bulgarian split squats with Oliver.

* On the actual topic of linemates, Aston-Reese said he likes playing with guys that are more defensive-minded. "Just because that's kind of what I take pride in in my game," he said. "Having a guy that is responsible defensively makes it easy. If you play defense first, it's going to take care of the offense. It's not easy in the D zone, say you're playing left wing and you get mixed up at center. Having a guy that knows what to do in that situation is pretty big."
Aston-Reese spent most of the year playing alongside a couple of guys who do just that: Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev. Before Aston-Reese got injured on Feb. 16, they had developed into one of the Penguins' most consistent trios.
While Blueger is a pretty calm, low-key guy personality-wise, Tanev is the opposite.
"He's such a high-energy guy," Aston-Reese said. "He gets pretty emotional, so sometimes we'll bicker at each other and then we'll make up in-between periods. It's nice. We get on each other and we know it's probably for the best. One of us is right, one of us is wrong but we never want to admit it."

The host mentioned how Rust is having a career year playing on a line with Evgeni Malkin, and asked if Aston-Reese had the chance to play with either him or Sidney Crosby.
"Last year I was with (Phil) Kessel and Geno for a bit," Aston-Reese said. "When you play with those guys, you've got to just not overthink the game. You just got to go out and play. If you grip your stick a little too tight, you're going to mess up. You just got to find open ice and they'll give you the puck."
At that point, Aston-Reese wanted to go back to the topic of Rust's good year, saying that he takes responsibility.
"There was a game against the Islanders and we had a shorthanded 2-on-1, and I scored. He went offsides, so it didn't count," Aston-Reese said. "Then after that, he sniped on the power play and I think ever since then, he's been unstoppable. So I take a little bit of responsibility."
* The session ended with some fan questions.
When asked who is the funniest guy in the locker room, Aston-Reese said it just depends on the day. "Geno is pretty funny when he gets talking," he said. "With his mixture of Russian and English, whenever he gets going on the card games on the flights he gets pretty animated. Makes everyone laugh. I'll go with him for that one."
Going off that, Aston-Reese was asked if Crosby is as funny as his laugh. "Yeah, he's pretty funny," Aston-Reese replied. "He likes to hot stove, just kind of hang around and telling stories and talking. He's a big fan of that. Any time you get talking with him, there's going to be laughs. But he does have a pretty funny laugh."
And finally, Aston-Reese was asked if there was anything he could look back on growing up as something that changed his game and brought him to the next level. He said it was being able to dial it in with off-ice workouts when he was 15 years old and went to play Junior B for the New Jersey Rockets.
"The coach there, Bob Thornton, he told my dad: I don't deal with parents," Aston-Reese said. "You drop your kid off at the rink and that's it. Then we would do off-ice workouts for an hour and on-ice for an hour and a half. That was kind of where I learned the importance of it and where I started to get good and get looked at by colleges."
And the rest is history.