Zucker and the Penguins Really Encouraged with His Progress

After the Penguins waited for Rickard Rakell to grab a new twig ahead of a drill during Saturday's practice, Jason Zucker loudly and playfully banged his stick on the ice with a huge smile on his face as his new teammate skated back over to the group.
It's been great for the guys to have his positive energy back at practice, as Zucker skated with the group in a non-contact fashion for the second time since undergoing core muscle injury repair surgery on Jan. 25

"Any time a player like Zuck gets close to coming back, I think it gives everyone a boost, because they know how important he is to our team and what he's capable of doing as far as helping us win games," head coach Mike Sullivan said.
"We're real encouraged with his progress. Hopefully we can progress him to the next stage, which is full capacity, sooner than later. So that's exciting from our standpoint."
It's been quite a road for the 30-year-old winger to reach this point, to say the least. He had been playing through the injury for quite a while, and had to really gut it out heading into the holidays to give the depleted Penguins enough bodies to put together a lineup that could help them win games.
"We had a lot of guys out with COVID, we had a lot going on, so it made sense to kind of battle through that," said Zucker, who refused to make any excuses for not performing up to the level he feels capable of after collecting four goals in the first 30 games of the season.
"Yes, I was playing through an injury, but if I'm good enough to be in the lineup, I should be performing," he said.
He took some maintenance days at practice, but didn't miss a game heading into the break, which began after their Dec. 19 matchup with New Jersey. Zucker said the combination of postponements due to COVID-related issues, along with the extended break, was a blessing in disguise. He was able to take some extra time - about four weeks total - to try and rehab and recover.
"We were happy with that progress at the time," Zucker said. "Felt pretty good about it, I felt I was as close to 100% on the ice as I could have been. I still had some issues off-ice, but it was something we were comfortable with."
After missing the first seven games coming out of the break, the Vegas native returned to the lineup in his hometown, scoring twice in Pittsburgh's epic 5-3 comeback victory over the Golden Knights. Unfortunately, Zucker had some issues the next day, and realized the injury wasn't quite as good as they had hoped.
"So we had to explore more options, and decided to go the surgery route to get it fully repaired," Zucker said.
Just like Sidney Crosby did in November of 2019, Zucker traveled to Philadelphia for the surgery, which was performed by Dr. William Meyers of the Vincera Institute. While Zucker said he was able to get the captain's opinion on different things like progressions and what he did after first getting on the ice, every case depends on the individual, and it all comes down to feel.
"We've been off around the same time, but we kind of took the opposite approach," Zucker said. "He got on early, but took it really slow, where we stayed off the ice a lot longer, but then were able to kind of hit the ground running on the ice.
"So for us, it's been a good process. I have to thank the training staff and the strength and conditioning staff. They've been doing an amazing job. So it's been really good and I'm happy with where I'm at, but I wouldn't be there without those guys. They've been doing a great job."
Right now, Zucker - who has missed 28 straight games and 35 of the past 36 - said he doesn't have a timeline for his return. But whenever it does happen, he's looking forward to being back to 100% and bettering his game.
"Zuck is a guy that kind of brings a little bit of everything to our lineup. He brings the energy, he's on pucks, he's feisty, he can contribute offensively," Jeff Carter said. "So I think whenever it is that he's back in the lineup here, it'll be a big boost for us."