Zucker's return to practice a 'huge relief,' but now Archibald's down

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Jason Zucker gave his teammates a little surprise for Monday's practice at the Lemieux Complex.

It was a week ago today that Zucker suffered a lower-body injury in the Penguins' game against the Stars. Mike Sullivan said two days later after the Penguins' practice on Wednesday that Zucker was considered "week-to-week."

Zucker was back to practicing with the Penguins, however, in Monday's practice and wore a normal contact jersey for the session.

"I was shocked," Casey DeSmith told me of the moment he found out Zucker was practicing that morning. "I looked across (the locker room) and saw him getting dressed and I was like, 'He's back already?!' It's a huge relief. He had a tough year last year with injuries, you just never want anyone to miss time. Really happy that he's back and doesn't have to miss a lot of time."

Zucker wasn't quite a full participant in practice just yet. He only stayed out on the ice for about half of the 30-minute practice, leaving once the team transitioned into the special teams portion of practice, given that he would have just been watching from the sidelines anyway. Zucker said afterward that his timetable hasn't changed, and Sullivan said that Zucker's status hasn't changed, but today was a step in the right direction.

"Zuck participated today, we'll see how he responds," Sullivan said. "His status hasn't changed at this point. But obviously, it's really encouraging that he's on the ice. So that's a great first step for us."

Zucker said that he wasn't going to comment on the specific nature of his injury. It appears that he may have sustained the injury late in the second period of last Monday's game when he took a shot off the foot, though. He hobbled to the locker room after the shot, though he was able to finish the third period:

Zucker said that he took things slowly at first on Monday

"You're always trying to test things out, be a little bit slow when you first get out there, make sure everything feels OK and you're not putting yourself in a bad spot to reinjure anything or anything of that sort," Zucker said. "I took it a little slow then was able to ramp it up from there."

While it's not clear when it might be, Zucker said he's looking forward to being back "as soon as possible."

"It was good to be out there," he said. "You never want to be out for any length of time. It was good to be out with the guys again."

It was a relief for Zucker's teammates too, especially knowing what he went though for most of last season with battling a core muscle injury. 

"It's great," said Bryan Rust. "You don't want to see guys go out with injuries. It's definitely good to see him back out there quickly. He did have some tough injury luck and he's a really big part of this team, a really good player for us. It's good to see him back out there."

MORE FROM PRACTICE

• Josh Archibald was absent from practice. Sullivan said Archibald was being evaluated for a lower-body injury.

• All other healthy players were in attendance, with emergency backup goaltender Mike Chiasson filling in as an extra third goaltender.

• The Penguins used these lines and pairings, with Zucker alternating between the fourth line and the extra defense pairing during different drills:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Ryan Poehling - Teddy Blueger - Drew O'Connor/Jason Zucker

Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Jan Rutta
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
(Jason Zucker - Mark Friedman)

• The power play units remained the same as last game. The top unit was Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Rickard Rakell. The second unit was P.O Joseph, Danton Heinen, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen and Rust

• Tuesday's game will be the first time the Penguins and Rangers face off since the Rangers eliminated the Penguins in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs last spring.

"They're a good team," Sullivan said. "We've got a ton of respect for the talent they have. They're a good team. They've got a dangerous power play, it's starting to go for them right now. We expect it to be a tough challenge just like it always is when we play them. They've got some dynamic offensively-gifted forwards that we're going to have to be aware of, they've got a real solid goaltender, we're going to have to make it a hard night for them. They're a good team, and they've played well as of late, they've gone on a pretty good run here as has our team. I would expect a pretty competitive hockey game on both sides."

• Letang's 10-year-old son Alex was in the locker room after practice. He had just the blade of a stick and was practicing taping it over and over. Letang's locker neighbor Marcus Pettersson took some time to help him when he came off the ice for practice, then Letang gave him some guidance too once he came off some time after.

• Crosby still had his mustache, despite the team's winning streak ending Sunday in Raleigh, N.C.

• The NHL released a rendering for the planned setup for next month's Winter Classic at Fenway Park in Boston:

NHL PR