Taking Flight - From the 'Q' to the 'D'

The Red Wings drafted Joe Veleno in the first round, 30th overall, in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot-1, 191-pound center is one of four Red Wings prospects writing a blog for our Taking Flight blog series, which chronicles the ups and downs of each player as they work their way to becoming Red Wings. During the 2018-19 season, Veleno played for the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). He is currently in his first season as a pro, playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit's American Hockey League affiliate. Here is his ninth blog entry of 'From the Q to the D.'

• https://www.nhl.com/player/joseph-veleno-8480813

From the 'Q' to the 'D' - Entry 9

        by Joe Veleno<br>Hello again, everybody. I never thought my next blog entry would be from my house in Montreal, especially at this time of year.<br>But before I begin, I want to say to all of you that I hope you and your family are safe and in good health. We truly are in this all together and together we will get through this, we're all on the same team.<br>Obviously, staying at home is really the only thing that I've been able to do. I try to get out of the house a little bit just for walks and runs and little things like that. Mostly, I've been keeping my distance and not really doing much, spending time with my family and watching movies, playing cards, playing board games or playing Xbox and talking to my friends on FaceTime. So it's not something I really like doing but it is what it is. At this point in time it's important to follow the rules and listen to what my government is saying and what people around the world are telling us to do. I have been working out here in my basement, I got a little gym set up and I was pretty fortunate with that. I've been following workout programs and trying to stay in shape as much as I can.<br>Like I said, I am back home in Montreal and there are five of us quarantined together. There's me, my mom and dad and my older brother, Michael, and my younger sister, Juliana. Everyone's got their own space. My brother, he's still doing school so he's pretty much locked up in his room most of the time. So is my sister, they're both kind of grinding on that. Apparently it's a lot harder since it's been online since it's just not the same as the classroom. They've been spending a lot of time in their rooms, just trying to get stuff done. On the other hand, I'm just kind of hanging out with my parents and helping out around the house, what needs to be fixed or what they need help moving, whatever that is. So we've been trying to keep busy a little bit around the house and I've been kind of helping out.<br>It's definitely tough for my brother and sister, they're so used to school and always being in the classroom, always interacting with people. We interact at home quite a bit but they've just been so busy honestly studying and trying to get schoolwork done. I know it's the end of the semester for both of them really, I think they've got a month left of school so they've been pretty busy studying for exams and handing in all their last assignments. My sister still gets to go to work from time to time, she works at Wendy's so there's still people coming in, ordering food or ordering takeout. She's been going there so I guess she sees a little bit of her friends at work. My brother just likes to stay in his room. He's really focused and committed to his studies. He's very self-motivated to do what he needs to do and as much as he'd like to see his friends, he talks to them online and on FaceTime, but again, he's a pretty self-motivated person that's able to do his thing and keep focused.<br>Since everyone's home now, we've all been trying to chip in around the house. I got a lot of free time so I try to help my parents as much as possible and sometimes even with making dinner or at least helping make dinner. The dinners have been pretty good. It's nice to have everyone at the table, usually someone's working or someone's not home or I'm not home and it's really nice to have everyone at the table having dinner together. I try to help out as much as possible cooking what I learned so far. I do my best. I don't think anyone loves doing the dishes. But I do them to help out. I've been trying to pick up little things, I've been helping clean up the garage. I know our garage is kind of messy so I've been trying to do that, get rid of old things that no one uses anymore. Just cleaning the house a little bit, making sure everything's clean and organized. We also have a house that we rent to people in RDP (Rivière-des-Prairies) where I used to live before we moved. A tenant just moved out over there so we've been kind of redecorating the place a little bit, so that's the only place I've gone besides my house. Along with my mom and my dad, we go there, we paint a little bit, trying to make the place look a little better for the next person that moves in. That's pretty much what I've been doing.<br>You may be getting the impression hockey is on the back burner, but hockey is always on my mind. As I have stated many times, I love hockey. It's definitely frustrating not being able to go out there on the ice and go to the rink but I guess it is what it is and it's the same for everyone. To kind of moderate that, I've been going out rollerblading around my house. It's pretty much the closest thing to skating. Kind of just going rollerblading, kind of getting the feel as if I was on the ice and trying to stay in shape by doing that.<br>Plus, I have a really nice workout setup in the basement. My brother kind of set it up, he wants to be a trainer/physio once he's older, so he's studying exercise science and he wants to become a trainer and is also studying physiotherapy. He got a lot of the equipment I have here so I have a squatting rack, I have a bench press, I have a couple weights here and there, couple dumbbells, I have a bike but not really sure it's the best bike but anyways, it does what it needs to do. I've got a chin-up bar, I've got a couple of bands, just little things that I can do. Then there's some bodyweight stuff that I already know how to do. But the weight definitely helps, the squatting rack. Instead of just doing bodyweight squats, I can push myself a little more by putting some weight and carrying some weight around. That helps a lot. We have a decent size basement so I guess it's small but it does the trick. It's been great having my brother around. He's definitely been a lot of help at this time, just asking for advice or talking, getting some feedback. So pretty lucky and fortunate to have him around and help me. If I have any questions, I can always ask him instead of picking up the phone and asking someone else. He's right here in my house and definitely helps me a lot.<br>Instagram from @\_\_jv90\_\_: Keeping busy with the #stayathomechallenge I nominate @jack\_lep @moritzseider @beaudz92 🏒🧻🦠<br>When I found out the AHL season was put on pause, I was in Grand Rapids. My parents were in town to spend the weekend watching me play. We played on Wednesday against Iowa, and on Thursday we got the news at the rink that there was a potential cancellation of not just our weekend games against Bakersfield, but of the season. We just waited in GR to see if our games would be canceled. I think Sunday, it was announced, or Monday it was announced, one of those two days. As soon as it was announced the season was put on pause, we were able to go back home, my parents had stuck around an extra day. They were originally supposed to leave Monday morning but instead they left Tuesday morning. They stuck around an extra day and we drove back, they drove and I drove my car back to Montreal. We just kind of followed each other along the way.<br>Before I left for home, the Red Wings gave us some workout plans to do while this was going on just to stay in shape a little bit. As of today, I haven't talked to any of the coaching staff or anything, we haven't had any of our meetings yet. In the next couple days, we'll probably get some news on that and probably have our one-on-one meetings, even if they have to be over the phone or FaceTime. But I really haven't had a lot of contact with our staff so far.<br>With everything that is going on with the pandemic, I am aware that we need to be diligent and follow all the guidelines in place to ensure we come out of this safe and healthy. Yet, I am really disappointed that the season is on pause and could end up being canceled. We were in a playoff spot and I thought we were really picking it up. It's been a good season so far. I really enjoyed it and being with those guys made the season a lot of fun. We have a really good team in Grand Rapids and we probably could surprise a lot of teams in the playoffs if we were in it. It's just frustrating all around. I'm sure for other athletes playing other sports, it's frustrating, too. This is really the most exciting time of the year and playoffs should be starting, everyone was looking forward to that. It's just a shame that we're not playing right now, but it's out of our hands.<br>As much as I would like to get back to playing and I'd be pretty comfortable doing anything, I know it'd be tough. Let's say the season were to resume, let's say we go right into playoffs, it would definitely be tough for a lot of guys. But it's something that we'll just have to deal with and try to do our best. I know everyone's at a disadvantage and all that. It would be actually kind of exciting to see how hockey's going to be played if it goes right into that. As long as hockey's back anytime soon, I would be really excited and really happy to just be on the ice no matter what the league decides to do.<br>Instagram from @\_\_jv90\_\_: Just another day at the grind💪<br>Until then, being back home is definitely nice. If there is a positive side to a quarantine, it is staying home and spending time with the family and seeing my siblings and being in this kind of environment. I know I don't get this a whole lot throughout the year. Every time I come home, I'm excited to be home and get spoiled a little bit. It's definitely good seeing their faces a lot every day around the house and having conversations. Nothing's really better than home so it's always nice to be here.<br>I do have a lot of time, so for fun I did the Stay at Home challenge with the toilet paper or juggling with toilet paper on my stick. I think it took me about maybe, I don't know, 8-10 tries. I don't know if that's a lot or not. It was actually pretty tough. It's a lot harder than it looks. With a ball and with a puck, it's a lot easier but with toilet paper, you just don't know where it's going to hit once it hits your stick. I know that it was a pretty hot topic when this first started. I saw a couple other people doing it but I tried to do it as soon as possible before a whole bunch of people started doing it. There's nothing else to do, it was quite entertaining for me. Maybe I'm easily entertained? Who knows!<br>Again in closing, I want to say to everyone just stay safe, stay healthy and practice social distancing. Try to stay in your house as much as you can unless it's a real necessity, going out to get groceries or stuff that is a necessity, that's all really we can do until this gets a lot better and it will get better. Be well, my friends.<br><em>In 54 games for Grand Rapids, Veleno has 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points. He is minus-25 and has scored three game-winning goals for the Griffins.</em>