Jason Zucker felt close to 100% when he took the ice in his hometown Jan. 17.
He looked pretty good, too, scoring two goals versus the Vegas Golden Knights.
“I still had a little bit of issues off-ice, but it was something we were comfortable with,” he recalled after Saturday’s practice. “I felt pretty good in the game.”
But the next day, after the Penguins had returned to Pittsburgh, the veteran winger recognized he still wasn’t quite right. He would soon go under the knife.
It was the latest setback for Zucker, whose three seasons in Pittsburgh have been filled with stops and starts. There was the initial pandemic pause a month after he joined the Penguins. Then the lower-body injury he had a hard time shaking off last season. And, the core muscle injury he is working back from now.
Zucker still has not played 100 games with the Penguins, who are holding out hope that this postseason he can finally be an impact player for them.
In his first comments since his surgery, he said, “It’s definitely been tough.”
You can say the same for Zucker. For the second straight season, he played hurt for the betterment of his team. Last fall, he skated through his lingering injury to help the Penguins survive a difficult stretch when players such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust were sidelined by health issues.
“It had been quite a while playing through the injury,” he acknowledged. “And then we were kind of piecing it together. We had a lot of guys out with COVID. We had a lot kind of going on. So it made sense to kind of battle through that.”
Zucker sat out a few practices, with the team calling them “maintenance days,” but he did not miss a game until after the NHL’s Christmas break. He sat out the first seven games of 2022, played Jan. 17 then was shut right back down.
“Hockey is essentially a one-legged sport, if you really think about it. You’re on one leg every time you’re striding,” the winger explained. “A lot of strain goes on those muscles throughout your core. If you get tweaked at all a little bit … and then you keep going on it, that’s how you can continue to make it worse.”
Zucker underwent surgery to repair a core muscle on Jan. 25. The procedure was performed by Dr. William Meyers of the Vincera Institute in Philadelphia. Meyers is the same surgeon who did Crosby’s core muscle surgery back in 2019.
Zucker has leaned on the Penguins captain for advice throughout this process. But, despite there being similarities between the respective injuries to Crosby and Zucker, the specifics of core muscle injuries vary from player to player, Zucker said.
The two players’ rehabilitation timelines also differ. Whereas Crosby was quick to get back on the ice two seasons ago then slowly took it from there, Zucker did much more rehab off the ice then “kind of hit the ground running” on the ice.
“Every case is going to be completely different, and it’s all a feel thing. It’s been a good process. I have to thank the training staff and the strength and conditioning staff,” he said. “They’ve been doing an amazing job. It’s been really good.”
The Penguins never provided a specific timetable on Zucker’s return. Three weeks ago, coach Mike Sullivan hinted he would return before the postseason.
Zucker got back on the ice on an individual basis the first week of March. Friday’s morning skate in New York was the first time he joined his teammates in a practice setting since having surgery. He has yet to be cleared for contact.
Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Red Wings will be the 29th he has missed following surgery. But Sullivan said Zucker will “be back sooner than later.”
On Saturday, Zucker mixed in on the fourth line during line rushes in Cranberry.
“It’s been obviously a tough time being out. You never want to be away from the team,” he said. “But it feels really good now. I’m happy with my progress.”
The 30-year-old joined the Penguins in February 2020. In 94 games with the team, including playoffs, he has 25 goals with 23 assists and a minus-9 rating.
He had six goals and seven assists in 31 games this season before going down. That is decent production for a middle-six winger, but the Penguins saw more promise than that when they traded their first-round pick to get Zucker in 2020.
“I don’t make any excuses,” he said. “Yes, I was playing through an injury. But if I’m good enough to be in the lineup, I should be performing. … You know, do I think I could have played better? Absolutely. I expect more of myself, for sure.”
He still has a chance to deliver. The Penguins likely need it to go on a run.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: March 26, 2022, 7:20 p.m.
