Rust and Zucker Could Return Monday at Vegas
- Rust available for Monday's game
After spending the last week isolating in a Dallas hotel room, Bryan Rust joined his teammates for their session this afternoon. And the 29-year-old winger said he felt about how you would expect following such a layoff.
"A bit rusty. Pun intended," he said with a grin. "It was definitely good to be back out there, just trying to get my feet back under me and trying to kind of just feel the puck again and get back up to speed. I felt decent out there today. Obviously, it wasn't perfect. Probably skate again in the morning, and go from there."
Rust had missed the last four games after testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of Pittsburgh's game in Dallas on Saturday, Jan. 8 and experiencing mild symptoms.
"The first part of the week, I wasn't feeling great," he said. "Slept a lot. One of the days I had a fever and some chills, and I was just really fatigued. But the last three or four days have been fairly boring trying to pass the time and get out of these protocols."
It did help that Rust was able to have an exercise bike in his room, and the strength and conditioning staff sent him bodyweight workouts for when he was feeling up to it. He'll be looking to pick up where he left off in what has certainly been an interesting season for Rust personally, to say the least.
Rust had scored just two goals in his first 12 appearances of the season while also missing seven straight contests from Oct. 16-Nov. 4 due to injury. After missing another 11 games, he returned to the lineup on Jan. 2 and piled up seven goals and 11 points in three games before getting derailed yet again, this time due to illness.
"There's been some highs and there's been some lows, but that's how things go sometimes, especially in a year like this and in the times we're living in with the uncertainty and everything," Rust said. "Sometimes injuries happen, and I guess you can say nowadays sometimes COVID happens. It is what it is, and I think you just gotta take it with a grain of salt, keep trying to push forward."
Head coach Mike Sullivan said Rust will be available for tomorrow's game.
- Zucker should be a game-time decision
Sullivan also said he anticipates Jason Zucker will be a game-time decision against the Golden Knights. The forward has missed the last seven games with a lower-body injury that had been nagging him heading into the holiday break, forcing him to miss some practices before the decision was made to put him on the shelf and let him fully recover.
"Right before Christmas, he was trying to play through the injury, and this just speaks to his character," Sullivan said. "We were pretty banged up at the time and we had a depleted lineup, and I think Zuck was gutting it out for us here game in and game out to try to give us bodies to put in the lineup that could help us win games. We're hoping that we're on the other side of it, and he looks pretty good right now. He looks strong. His conditioning is good. His speed is good."
Zucker said he'll talk to the medical team and see what they have to say, but that he's feeling good out on the ice going through the necessary steps.
"As far as today, it was good to get in some line rushes and some more of those game-like situations," Zucker said. "I've been doing some of that with (skills coach) Ty Hennes and the rest of the group. So the last few days, I'm trying to keep getting through those hurdles and keep coming along."
- Malkin, O'Connor given maintenance days
Evgeni Malkin and Drew O'Connor did not skate, and Sullivan said they were given maintenance days. Here is the Penguins workflow…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zohorna-Carter-Rodrigues
Zucker-Boyle-Kapanen
Simon-Blueger-McGinn
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
Riikola-Friedman
