Penguins forward Jason Zucker remains sidelined, status uncertain

Injured Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jason Zucker was absent from practice Monday in Cranberry. He has been sidelined since suffering an undisclosed injury during Thursday’s 4-3 overtime road win against the Minnesota Wild.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan indicated Zucker still is being evaluated, and a more complete update might be available Tuesday.

Following Monday’s practice, Zucker took the ice in a tracksuit and worked out briefly with skating and skills development coach Ty Hennes.

In the second period of Thursday’s contest, Zucker tumbled awkwardly into the boards and did a nearly complete split along the wall after Wild forward Kevin Fiala shoved him from behind.

Before that game, Zucker had been sidelined for 37 of the previous 38 games because of a core muscle injury that required surgery in late January.

Despite the predicament, Sullivan indicated Zucker was upbeat.

“I spoke with him this morning,” Sullivan said. “His spirits were really good this morning. He’s feeling better. We’ll see where he goes. But he was in much better spirits. He was much more encouraged when I saw him.”

Angello, Heinen, Kapanen also absent

Also absent from Monday’s practice were forwards Anthony Angello, Danton Heinen and Kasperi Kapanen. Sullivan said all three are dealing with an illness not related to covid-19. Their statuses for Tuesday’s home game against the Colorado Avalanche are uncertain.

With that trio waylaid, the Penguins recalled forward Filip Hallander from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League under emergency conditions.

Hallander, 21, has appeared in 52 AHL games this season and has 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists).

This is Hallander’s first true recall to the NHL level in his career — he was summoned to the taxi squad in January — and he has yet to appear in an NHL contest. A second-round pick (No. 58 overall) in 2018, the Swedish-born Hallander is in the midst of his first season in North America.

Emergency recalls are permitted in the event an NHL club is unable to dress a standard lineup of 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders.

Following the NHL’s trade deadline, which was March 21, NHL teams are permitted to make only four standard recalls before their AHL affiliate’s season is completed. Emergency recalls do not count toward that figure.

Minus Angello, Heinen, Kapanen and Zucker, the Penguins were able to practice with only 10 forwards Monday. That prompted some changes to the practice that lasted a little less than an hour.

“We had short numbers on the ice,” Sullivan said. “For sure, we’ve got to make adjustments to the practice. We can’t do as much five-on-five stuff. We’ve got to be selective on what we’re going to work on and how we’re going to work on it so that we present the right workload for our players without overtaxing them because of the short (number of) bodies that we have on the ice. Without a doubt, we had to adjust practice. That’s not an ideal scenario, but it is what it is.”

Ill communication

The Penguins have had a handful of players miss games or practices because of illnesses unrelated to covid-19 in recent weeks.

Given what the past two years have been like with regards to covid-19 and the measures taken to limit the spread of that virus, NHL-ers — typically fawned over for playing through all sorts of ailments — appear to have adopted more caution with more traditional illnesses.

“Everyone has gotten a heightened (awareness) with sickness and how fast it can spread,” said Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who missed a 5-2 home win against the Vegas Golden Knights on March 11 because of an illness. “I think everyone is a little bit more of an expert on health and safety now. Maybe in the past, they would still be coming in (to the team’s facilities) and either doing something, or maybe they would not be as apt to speak up about it. Obviously, we want them to be as healthy as they can. But it’s good that they’re staying home and not getting anybody else sick.”