The Coyotes officially touched down in Melbourne, Australia on Monday around 7:00 a.m. local time and immediately hit the ground running to get some ice time in to prepare for training camp.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Jason Zucker, the 35-year-old from the Pittsburgh Penguins is excited to spend some bonding time with his new team before the preseason officially kicks off on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
“Being able to stay up with the guys on the plane and play cards and just have some good talks and get to know the guys a little bit more I think was great,” Zucker said. “I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip.”
Zucker is no stranger to bonding with different teammates. The 13 year vet has been through this same process numerous times already, as the ‘Yotes are the third franchise he has been a member of.
As for his first time hitting the ice with his new teammates, it was nothing but easy for the veteran to get adapted with the Coyotes team. He even placed emphasis on spending ice-time with some of the younger players in Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther.
“They’re two extremely talented players,” Zucker said. “They’re going to be big parts of our team now and moving forward. For me, I’m just hoping I can help them through anything that they need but also they’re great players so they’re going to help my game.”
After the nearly 17 hour flight from Phoenix to Melbourne, it is impressive that the team already has some time on the ice under their belts.
“I feel pretty good surprisingly, I got some pretty decent sleep on the plane,” Zucker said. ” I think it was good to come out here and actually get moving a little bit… now it’s just about trying to stay awake and try to get some good sleep tonight.”
Their busy schedules aren’t slowing down anytime soon as they have a busy week of training camp and preseason games ahead of them.
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Taylyn Hadley is a sports and general assignment reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow her on X via @TAYLYNH11.
