Penguins forward Jason Zucker returns to lineup

There are worse places to spend a birthday than Las Vegas.

Or you also could celebrate the day at home.

For Jason Zucker, he got to do both.

Having grown up in Sin City, Zucker turned 30 on Sunday in familiar and jubilant surroundings through a coincidence in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ schedule.

“Sent a couple of e-mails to the schedule maker,” Zucker joked with media Sunday in Las Vegas.

Zucker received a belated gift Monday by being healthy enough to return the lineup after missing the previous seven games with an undisclosed injury.

“It’s always tough when you’re out,” said Zucker, who was activated from long-term injured reserve Monday evening. “You want to be contributing, especially when the team kept (a winning) streak going after the (holiday) break. It was kind of fun watch. You always wish you could be a part of that and help the team in any way. It’s never fun being out.”

Things didn’t sound like they were fun for Zucker the last time he was in the lineup.

“Right before Christmas, he was trying to play through the injury,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “This just speaks to his character. We were pretty banged up at the time, and we had a depleted lineup. (Zucker) was gutting it out for us here game in and game out to give us bodies to put in the lineup to help us win games. We’re hoping that we’re on the other side of it.”

Zucker said: “Everybody wants to play. Everyone is playing through some injury at some point. It’s very rare if you’re 100% healthy. We had a lot of guys out of the lineup. It was something that I thought I could play though. It wasn’t perfect or ideal by any means. But I felt that I was going to do my best to help contribute any way that I could playing through it.”

Having recuperated, Zucker rejoined Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen on the team’s second line to open Monday’s road game against the Vegas Golden Knights. The trio frequently was deployed throughout the 2020-21 season.

“I try to let them be the creative ones, and I try to play a more straight-ahead game,” Zucker said. “If I can create loose pucks for those two guys, they’re going to make plays. That’s something that I feel like I can do, especially with my speed, being able to push (defensemen) back, give them some open ice, get in on the forecheck. I’m going to try to play the simple game. Let them do everything else. Get around the net and just shoot the puck when I get the chance.”

Zucker hasn’t always capitalized on those chances when they’ve been presented to him. In his first 30 games of the season, he had only 11 points (four goals, seven assists). And his shooting percentage of 4.9%, before Monday, is the worst of his 11-year career.

“There’s been a lot of chances that I’ve had that I haven’t buried,” Zucker said. “For me, it’s something that I don’t think I’ve ever shot the puck at as low of a shooting percentage as I have in my career. It’s something that typically, it evens out at some point.”

His coach concurs.

“He’s had a lot of strong games for us,” Sullivan said. “There was a stretch there where he was getting the most opportunities as far as primary chances for per 60 minutes for a significant amount of games. The only thing that was lacking was finish. So it’s not from a lack of opportunities. The puck hasn’t gone in the net for him. That’s been frustrating for (Zucker), but I have to believe if he continues to get the opportunities that he was getting, I think he’ll score goals for us.”

“You’ve just got to stay the course, try to play the same way and play as a team, play with your line,” Zucker said. “Those chances are going to keep coming and eventually, they’ll go in.”

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