Caleb Jones was home for the holidays.
A lot.
The Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman hasn’t been at the office too often for the past two-and-a-half months.
A suspected left foot injury he suffered during a 5-3 road win against the Florida Panthers has sidelined him for the bulk of the season and he hasn’t been able to even skate until recent weeks.
“My wife was getting sick of me,” Jones quipped.
After participating in an optional morning skate in Cranberry on Thursday, Jones operated in a non-contact capacity for a lightly attended practice session Friday.
These were his first true on-ice sessions with teammates since suffering his ailment.
“It’s been tough,” Jones said Friday. “A couple of dark days for sure. But you kind of try to focus on other things, mentally. Reflect on things that you were doing in your game and try to find ways to improve. Obviously, you can’t do anything physically. Try to work on the mental side and see when you get back, if you can make improvements that way. I try to focus on that and just stay positive and try to attack the rehab process.”
Before being hobbled, Jones, who was sporting a walking boot on his left foot for much of his convalescence, was a pretty steady part of the Penguins’ lineup, appearing in seven of the team’s first eight games, primarily on the left side of the third pairing. With Jones on the ice, the Penguins were 6-1-0 as they opened the season.
“He was playing well,” coach Dan Muse said. “It’s unfortunate there with the injury. … What I saw out of him, I thinks it’s the puck movement, the ability to close and take away time and space, the stick detail. All of those things were in a good place there prior to him getting hurt.”
Jones was injured as a result of a collision with Panthers forward Brad Marchand, a player with a lengthy history of maiming opponents through scurrilous means.
But Jones holds no ill will toward Marchand.
“He’s got a little bit of a history but he’s a good guy,” Jones said. “He apologized after the game. I think he was just trying to get the puck and make a hard play on it. I kind of just took my feet out from under me and the skate went in at a pretty weird angle. Right away, it hurt. I thought I could probably come back but it was obviously a pretty significant injury.
“I’ll make sure Marchand gets me a bottle of wine or something.”
Jones is acquaintanced with Marchand through his brother, Panthers defenseman Seth Jones.
“I kind of got to know him a little bit that way,” Caleb Jones said. “He’s obviously an awesome guy. A great personality. He can definitely be a little rat out there on the ice sometimes. But I actually saw him after that game. He felt pretty bad about it. He checked in on me a couple of times. I don’t think he meant anything by it.
“It was kind of one of those weird plays where I went down.”
Jones was placed on injured reserve Oct. 25 and the team initially offered a time frame of eight weeks for recovery.
Nearly 11 weeks later, Jones is still recovering but he suggested “next weekend” as a target for when he believes he’ll be ready to play.
“I was off the ice for about two months, so it was a long time,” Jones said. “It comes back pretty quick but obviously you’re trying to retrain things with your foot and trying to get feeling good again.”
Whenever he does get back into the lineup, Jones is hopeful to recover what felt right to him when he opted to sign with the Penguins this past offseason, agreeing to a two-year contract.
“Talking to management, talking to the coaches, they were going to give me a really good opportunity to play regularly and establish myself in the NHL,” Jones said. “It’s obviously tough when you get hurt. You bring in other guys or other guys start playing well, which is always good. You want the team to do good.
“But you kind of just have to not think about stuff like that and keep working hard and wait for your next opportunity that they give you.”