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Sabres Zucker Working His Way Back From Offseason Surgery
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- Sabres Zucker Working His Way Back From Offseason Surgery
The Buffalo Sabres take on the Dallas Stars at KeyBank Center on Thursday in the third game of their five-game homestand, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen getting the start in goal after backup Colten Ellis started and won 3-2 in overtime over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff made line changes in the third period to provide a spark, and kept those combos at practice on Wednesday, with Jiri Kulich and Peyton Krebs skating with Tage Thompson, and Josh Norris moving down in the lineup.
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Injured veterans Jason Zucker and goalie Alex Lyon were on the ice on Thursday for an optional morning skate.
Lyon spoke to the media on Tuesday, and Zucker followed suit on Thursday, providing an update on his status of recovery from core muscle surgery, saying that things are on track and progressing, but there is no specific timeline for when he will be able to return.
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" I'm progressing, making sure that it's getting strong enough, going up the way it needs to. I feel good on the ice, feels where it needs to be." Zucker said. "We're making sure that we are sticking to the timeline and the plan that we put together, and then, we have some stuff in the back of our mind that we're looking at, but it's a very soft date at this point."
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The 34-year-old winger had 24 goals last season, but missed 20 games, and struggled to score at a similar rate in the playoffs. Zucker did not have surgery until early August, which kept him out of training camp and the exhibition schedule, but indicated that as much as he wants to get back in the lineup, he knows that he has to be at full strength to avoid re-injury.
"Luckily or unluckily.... I've done this far too many times throughout my career. I know that rushing it never works out in your favor. You're always going to come back. You're going to feel it within a couple of games. You're going to go backwards," Zucker said. "It's just kind of understanding that it's part of the healing process. You need to stick to the timeline and make sure that it's 100% T here's certain things you can play through at 80 or 90%. Then there's other things, t ypically post-surgeries, you have to get back to 100% before you're going to come back and play."
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