Penguins forward Jason Zucker returns to practice

It was a marvelous moment for Jason Zucker.

Making his triumphant return to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ lineup — in, of all places, his hometown of Las Vegas — the skilled scoring winger reunited with linemates Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen on Jan. 17.

And he ended up being the driving force behind a comeback from a three-goal deficit that allowed his team to claim a 5-3 road win against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Zucker scored the Penguins’ first goal of the contest and the tying goal.

It might have been Zucker’s best game of the season.

If nothing else, it was his most recent game of the season.

Since the calendar turned to 2022, Zucker has missed 35 of 36 games because of a core muscle injury that had hindered him since at least mid-December.

After missing the first seven games of January, Zucker returned to the lineup against Vegas, then was sidelined again. By Jan. 25, the team announced he underwent surgery to correct the malady.

On Saturday in Cranberry, Zucker skated with his teammates during a practice for the first time since the procedure.

“It feels really good now,” said Zucker, who wore a white jersey to signal no contact during practice. “It’s been obviously a long time being out. You never want to be away from the team. It’s always tough being injured. Overall, it feels really good now. I’m happy with my progress.”

The progression of the injury mostly had taken a downward trajectory since December. While Zucker was in the lineup, he frequently had been absent from practices for what, at the time, were termed as “maintenance days.”

Coach Mike Sullivan eventually indicated Zucker had been playing through some sort of injury while other members of the team were in protocols for covid-19.

“It had been quite a while playing through the injury,” Zucker said. “We were kind of piecing it together. We had a lot of guys out with (covid-19), we had a lot kind of going on. It made sense to kind of battle through that.”

When the NHL went on an extended break throughout December as the omicron variant of covid-19 surged throughout North America, that afforded Zucker some time for his injury to heal.

“It kind of worked out well with all those games being (postponed),” Zucker said. “It was a little bit of a blessing in disguise there. I was able to take some time. It ended up being about four weeks off. We were happy with that progress at the time. Felt pretty good about it. I was as close to 100 percent on the ice as I could have been. I still had a little bit of issues off ice, but it was something that we were comfortable with.

“Obviously, came back in that game (against Vegas). I felt pretty good in the game and then the next day kind of had some issues and realized it wasn’t quite as good as we wanted it to be. We had to explore more options and decided to go with the surgery route to get it fully repaired.”

No timetable has been offered publicly for a potential return. But just taking part in a practice is a considerable step forward.

“I feel really good right now, skating well,” Zucker said. “It’s been good to have these hybrid sessions the last couple of days skating with (skating and skills development coach Ty Hennes). And then back out with the team. It’s good. It’s a work in progress, and I feel good so far.”

Penguins forward Sidney Crosby underwent a similar procedure during the 2019-20 season and missed several weeks. Zucker indicated he has consulted Crosby on this injury, which is almost exclusive to hockey players given the mechanics of skating.

“It is very unique to hockey,” Zucker said. “The stride is something that you can never mimic. You can’t copy that in the gym. You can’t train for that (away from the rink). You have to train for that on the ice. Hockey is essentially a one-legged sport if you really think about it. You’re on one leg every time you’re striding … So It’s very unique in that sense. A lot of strain goes on those muscles through your core. If you get tweaked at all a little bit, a pull or a strain, something of that sort, and then you keep going on it, that’s how you can continue to make it worse.”

This injury has been the latest pockmark in an unremarkable two years-plus with the Penguins for Zucker, who arrived via trade in February of 2020. And with the pandemic disrupting his tenure with the Penguins during most of that time frame, Zucker’s opportunities to be on the ice — for games at least — have been somewhat disjointed.

“I don’t make any excuses,” Zucker said. “If I’m good enough to be in the lineup, I should be performing. Yes, I was playing through an injury but if I’m good enough to be in the lineup, I should be performing. I don’t look at the criticisms from the outside. I don’t follow that stuff. That’s not something that I follow or care about, to be honest. For me, it’s about what’s in the locker room and coaches and general managers and that side of things. Do I think I could have played better? Absolutely. I expect more of myself for sure. But I’m not going to make any excuses as far as injuries go. If I’m in the lineup, I should be playing well.”

“I’m happy with where I’m at right now and bettering my game. Being back to 100 % will be nice.”

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