Season’s pause gives fathers time
Penguins take on added dad duties
Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson should have been chasing Claude Giroux or stepping in front of one of Alex Ovechkin’s booming slap shots.
Instead, he chased a toddler then stepped in front of a changing table. After that was overtime against a little girl who refused to stay in her bed.
The 33-year-old father of three is not complaining. Quite the opposite. Sure, he wishes the world was in better shape right now and the Penguins were skating in playoff games. But after his hockey career often pulled him away from his young family the past few years, Johnson happily is hunkered down.
“I’m very hopeful we are going to get a chance to finish what we started,” he said recently. “In the meantime, it’s the old saying — you only worry about what you can control. So the silver lining is I get to spend time with my newborn baby and my family that I probably wouldn’t be seeing very much right now.”
Johnson is one of several Penguins who are adjusting to life as stay-at-home dads while the NHL season is stuck on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kris Letang’s back aches from hunching over to play ministicks with his 7-year-old son. Patrick Marleau’s brain was quickly fried homeschooling his four boys in San Jose, Calif.
Jason Zucker needs an afternoon nap as much as anyone.
“[My wife and I] thought we were going to have all this time,” Zucker told AT&T SportsNet. “We have this list of things we were going to do at the house. We were going to clean out our storage room. We’re going to clean up the basement and hang up these TVs and whatever else. None of it’s gotten done.”
Zucker has three kids. His oldest daughter is 9.
Nick Bjugstad is just getting started in fatherhood. His little girl, Layla, just turned a year old. Due to the need for social distancing, they were forced to throw a virtual birthday bash for her.
“It’s kind of a bummer,” Bjugstad said. “Obviously, the first one is a big one.”
Unfortunately, Bjugstad has spent a lot of time at home over the past six months due to three stints on injured reserve. He is itching to get back onto the ice. But he is grateful for memorable days with his young daughter.
April 14 “was her first official day of walking on her own with legitimate steps and stopping and going again. So that was pretty cool,” the big forward beamed. “We’re really going to be in trouble now that she’s started walking.”
Bjugstad might have missed that if the Penguins were playing right now.
“That’s what I meant about staying positive and looking at the benefits of being able to be home with your family right now,” said Bjugstad, who revealed that his wife, Jackie, and he are expecting a second baby in September.
Like Bjugstad, Johnson spends a chunk of his days changing diapers. His wife, Kelly, and he welcomed a baby boy, Thomas, into the world March 4. One week later, that world started to shut down due to the coronavirus.
Johnson’s days in isolation begin around 6 a.m. He puts on a pot of coffee while Thomas has his first feeding of the day. After the two older children skip down the stairs, Johnson usually cooks them waffles or scrambles some eggs.
Around 9 a.m. is when Johnson gets in his workout. Ditto for Bjugstad.
“Once that nap hits, that’s the time when I try to do my workout,” Bjugstad said. “She naps for two hours. That’s been big, having that routine every day.”
Johnson’s 4-year-old daughter, Jacklyn, and oldest son, Ty, were enrolled in a preschool program through a local church before Gov. Tom Wolf ordered child-care centers closed statewide last month. The family is currently living at their house in the Columbus area, doing the homeschooling thing after breakfast.
“We’re staying up with the curriculum. My 2-year-old is kind of in over his head because he’s doing stuff that she’s supposed to be doing. But he just likes to tag along, and it’s fine,” Johnson said. “We’re not worried about their development at [their ages] because they don’t even have to be at school yet.”
Recently, the two kids learned about the letter U. It was raining that day, so Jack and Kelly gave each one an umbrella and let them open them up outside. Homeschooling gets a little bit harder, though, when the kids hit elementary school.
“The funny part about it is when they ask for your help and you’re learning with them,” Zucker said. “All the math and that stuff, I have no idea what I’m doing. So I’m Googling things, trying to help [Sophia] with her math homework.”
Boredom is the opponent most afternoons, so parents have to improvise.
Maybe the Johnson kids put on chef’s outfits and help Kelly bake muffins. Or they all hop on the golf cart and go feed the swan on the pond on their property. Or Jacklyn and Ty ride bikes, their Superman capes flapping in the breeze.
“Every day is a little different, trying to find something new for them,” he said.
Johnson isn’t sure how best to tell his kids why daily life has been disrupted.
“It’s too bad that things have come to a halt because we just got her into skating lessons,” he said. “It’s tough to all the sudden pull the plug. I can’t just explain to her, ‘Well, you know, it’s the coronavirus.’ It’s like, what do you say?”
After dinner time, it’s time for baths, stories and bed. Unless it’s Friday. That’s movie night. The Johnsons pop a tub of popcorn and crowd the couch.
When Johnson was younger, he loved hitting the road with his teammates. He was able to explore new places and wine and dine at four-star restaurants. Now, his favorite meals are the pretend ones whipped up by
Jacklyn and Ty.
“It’s really nice for them, especially, to have dad home every night to tuck them in and do all those things and know that dad is going to be there in the morning,” he said. “Because during the season, they wake up and dad’s not there.”
Will this season resume? Penguins players know about as much as you do. But the dads are creatively trying to limit the deterioration of their skills.
Johnson bought a hockey net and cones on Amazon and has been running his kids through driveway drills. Marleau recently got scolded for rollerblading through the halls of his home. Bjugstad has been softly shooting tennis balls at baby Layla, who, after making the save, will bounce the ball back to her daddy.
Johnson and the others hope that at some point the Stanley Cup gets awarded, preferably to them. In the meantime, they are just going to enjoy being a dad.
“I’m sure the league is going to do whatever they can to let us finish this [season],” Johnson said. “I’ve got a lot of faith that I can get the best of both.”