Injury problems behind him for now, Jason Zucker happy to be contributing to Penguins
Jason Zucker’s 11th NHL season has been his toughest to endure, he said Monday. Moments later, though, the Pittsburgh Penguins veteran wing spoke of “the joy” he’s feeling these days.
“Just excited to be in the lineup, excited to be out there playing,” Zucker said after the morning skate in advance of Monday’s Game 4 of the Penguins’ first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers. “Playoff hockey is the best time of year, so for me I am putting that all past me and just looking forward.”
The “all that” Zucker is putting past himself is a regular season in which he endured a handful of injury interruptions. An ailment that necessitated core-muscle surgery in January was chief among the reasons why Zucker was limited to exactly half of the regular season’s 82 games.
The final proverbial insult came when he suffered an undisclosed injury during the penultimate game of the regular season, a loss to the Edmonton Oilers, that prevented Zucker from playing in the regular-season finale and opening two games of the Rangers series.
“It’s been tough. It’s definitely been, I would say, the toughest year of my career, for sure,” Zucker said. “Just the way the injuries have gone, feeling great, come back, re-injured, feel great again, come back, injury (again).
“It just seems like it’s been non-stop for me, but that’s the way it goes. I am not the first guy who has gone through this and I won’t be the last guy as well. So for me it’s about mentally staying in it and I was doing everything I could to come back and help this team any way possible.”
Zucker helped the Penguins in Game 3 — quickly. During his first shift, linemate Brock McGinn scored. During Zucker’s third shift, he delivered two checks — the second, a crushing blow to New York defenseman Adam Fox — and drew a penalty seconds later that would end up facilitating a Penguins’ power-play goal.
“I wanted to make sure I made an impact on the game in any way,” Zucker said. “Typically when you’re coming in late into a series or even the season in general you are trying to get the rhythm of the game back, so for me getting a couple hits and getting into the game mentally is the best way to do it.”
Zucker ended Game 3 with a team-most seven credited hits and three shots on goal over 13 minutes and 11 seconds of ice time spread over 19 even-strength shifts. Zucker, though, was a team-worst minus-1 and he admitted feeling “gassed” later in the game.
“That’s kind of expected when you come back (from injury) as you try to get back into the swing of things,” he said.
“Come postseason, everything is just amped up a little bit more and it makes it fun to play. I get really excited — and I know everyone else does as well — but I really look forward to the playoffs. It’s the best time of year, so for me it’s about trying to help the team win any way possible, whether it’s physicality, whether it’s putting the puck on the net, trying to change momentum any way possible. That’s what I try to do on a shift-by-shift basis.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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