CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Jason Zucker admitted that he had lost some love for the game last season.
You can't really blame him for that, either.
It was a frustrating year. Zucker was battling through a core muscle injury throughout most of the season, and it sidelined him for a total of 41 games over the course of the year -- exactly half of the regular season.
He was sidelined for a month starting in mid-December with a sports hernia before returning for one game on Jan. 17 in Las Vegas. He was sidelined again after that game with the same nagging injury before undergoing core muscle repair surgery on Jan. 25. Zucker made his return from surgery on March 31 in Minnesota, but was injured by a shove from behind in the game that aggravated his previous injury and sidelined him for nine more days. He was injured once again on April 26 in a game against the Oilers, and was out until Game 3 of the playoffs. He was far from 100% once he returned, and he did what he could in the playoffs to play through the injury. That included sitting on an elevated stool in the tunnel between shifts rather than down lower on the bench.
Even when he was "healthy" throughout the year he usually wasn't really healthy. It was a physical and mental grind -- he was playing through pain and the fear that his injury would flare up again.
On locker room cleanout day following the Penguins' elimination from the playoffs, Zucker said that he wasn't sure if surgery was in the cards for him over the summer. He and the Penguins' medical staff ultimately came to the conclusion that surgery wasn't necessary.
"We decided against surgery," he told me in a conversation after Day 2 of the Penguins' training camp at the Lemieux Complex. "It was just a lot of rehab. It was a lot of time off the ice, a lot of rest and rehab. All my training was just kind of rehab based. But it was great. You know, it was exactly what I needed. I've got to thank those guys in the summer a lot, they did a heck of a job."
Zucker stayed off the ice entirely until August, something he said was "really late" for him in a typical summer, but was what he felt like he needed. He did join the Minnesota-based summer league Da Beauty League around that time and won the championship. Having the ability to get into those low-stakes games in the summer helped him get back into game-form after spending so much time off the ice.
"It's perfect for the summer," he said. "It's a fun league, and it's good just to get some game action. It's usually not too intense, which is nice. So it's a fun little league. They do a nice job there."
Zucker said that he feels "great" entering this season, and said that he has "no concern" that the injury that plagued him last season will flare up again this season. He's ready to put those injury struggles behind him.
"It was hard," he said, reflecting on last season. "It was something that even when I got healthy, I had that in the back of my head all the time. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before it was just going to pop again. And that's exactly what happened. So it was it was a tough year. It was a long year. It was definitely the toughest year of my career, that's for sure."
Zucker was able to take some positives from the experience, though. He said that he was able to learn a lot from what he went through, and as he healed physically over the summer, he also found new love for the game.
"I have a different respect level for the game," he told me. "This summer I was able to kind of find a newfound love for the game, which was nice. Because I didn't have it last year, I'll tell you that."
There's an added level of excitement for Zucker coming into this season, too. After what he called "uncertainty" surrounding the contracts of Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell this summer, Zucker said it was "unbelievable" to have them all back as the team opens training camp.
"We need those guys," he said. "They're obviously great players. It rounds out our team in a different type of way. For us to be able to get all those guys for the price we did, kudos to those guys for taking less than they should have gotten and wanting to be a part of a winning team. We're really happy and glad to have them back."
With the players the Penguins have returning, Zucker thinks that this is a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup.
"I love this team," he told me. "I think we're in a really good spot. We've got a lot of work to do. But we're in a good place and we seem to build off last year and the year before and just keep getting better. I think we're in a really good place."
If Zucker can stay healthy and have a strong season, that can go a long way toward this team's success.
MORE FROM TRAINING CAMP
• The 31 forwards, 21 defensemen and six goaltenders attending camp were still divided into three teams on Day 3, with only some minor shuffling of the prospect invites from the Day 2 groups. Here is how the different groups lined up:
TEAM 1
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Valtteri Puustinen
Drew O'Connor - Ryan Poehling - Rickard Rakell
Jamie Devane/Alex Nylander - Sam Poulin - Danton Heinen
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
Ty Smith - Chad Ruhwedel
Jon Lizotte - Taylor Fedun
TEAM 2
Drake Caggiula - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Radim Zohorna - Josh Archibald
Brooklyn Kalmikov/Raivis Ansons - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson/Ty Glover
Brian Dumoulin - Mark Friedman
Chris Ortiz - Mitch Reinke
Xavier Ouellet - Jack St. Ivany/Nolan Collins
TEAM 3
Filip Hallander - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Nathan Legare
Sam Houde - Jordan Frasca - Corey Andonovski/Lukas Svejkovsky
P.O Joseph - Kris Letang
Isaac Belliveau - Jan Rutta
Ryan McCleary - Josh Maniscalco
• Teams 1 and 3 scrimmaged, with Team 1 winning 2-1. Crosby had both goals for Team 1, and Teddy Blueger had the lone goal for Team 3. Casey DeSmith pitched a shutout in his half. Tristan Jarry, Taylor Gauthier and Tommy Nappier each let in one goal.
• This was the final scrimmage involving these groups of players, only one more scrimmage is on the schedule and it's later in camp after cuts will have occurred. Team 2 took home the training camp championship after sweeping both of their first two games, and Team 3 finishes winless.
• Jeff Carter left midway through the scrimmage and didn't return, it wasn't clear what may have happened to him. Sullivan said afterward that Carter was being evaluated for an upper-body injury.
• Defense prospect Nolan Collins remained in a non-contact jersey with the shoulder injury he told me he suffered in his OHL team's training camp between development camp and rookie camp. Defense prospect Owen Pickering, who is dealing with an upper-body injury and didn't skate during rookie camp, still didn't practice, but I saw him skating on his own before camp got underway. He was standing on the bench in street clothes once practice began, and he had what appears to be some kind of brace on his right wrist. Defense prospect Colin Swoyer, who suffered a lower-body injury in Day 1 of camp, also skated on his own before practice but did not practice with the team.
• I was talking with Radim Zohorna (more on him in a story in the coming days) and I asked him if he was able to do anything to help Valtteri Puustinen get used to just living in North America, since he was in those shoes two seasons ago, with the same challenges with English. I thought his answer was really funny:
"I tried to get him some lessons from the English teacher but he didn't want to," he said. "So I have to work with him because I think his English is funny. Like, he needs to really learn English, get some lessons, you know? This is his second year. He should be speaking better than last year and I feel like I think he's worse than last year (laughs) No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But he does need to get some lessons."
• The Penguins have their split-squad preseason games on Sunday, with one group of players playing one group of Blue Jackets in Pittsburgh at 1 p.m., and another group playing in Columbus at 7 p.m. Sullivan said that Mike Vellucci will coach the Pittsburgh game and Todd Reirden will coach the Columbus game, with the Wilkes-Barre staff rounding out the group. Sullivan said that he's going to try to attend both games, and management has a van lined up to drive them to Columbus after the Pittsburgh game.
• Sullivan said that he thinks Drew O'Connor's fitness level is "off the charts."
"He's a great athlete," Sullivan said of O'Connor. "He's strong on the puck. He's a good skater. He's got a long reach. He's another guy I think that's versatile, he played some center last year, he can play the wing. I think in our lineup he's probably better suited to play the wing. He's big and strong, he's good on the wall, he's got some finishing touches to his game. I know he's got some more experience killing penalties and if he's going to play on our roster at this point, he's more than likely going to play in a bottom-six role. To have players that we can utilize in situations like the penalty kill, I think is really important. Drew potentially could be one of those guys."
• It's cool seeing just the number of equipment managers and athletic trainers here to help manage this many players. Both Wilkes-Barre's staff and Wheeling's staff make the trip here to Pittsburgh for camp and take on various roles. That includes Nailers equipment manager Billy Higgins, who has been in Wheeling since 2000 and also doubles as the team's emergency backup goaltender. He has to serve as backup every couple of years, but so far has only gotten into a game once in 2005-06.
• There are a ton of familiar faces around the Lemieux Complex this weekend in town for the USHL tournament taking place here. Today I saw former Penguins assistant coach Tony Granato, now the head coach of the men's team at the University of Wisconsin.
• Will Jackson, the North Hills hockey player who had Crosby help him with his homecoming proposal during Crosby's season ticket delivery, was here in the stands with his homecoming date. Crosby's assist continues to pay off.
