During the grind of a season, the players tend to be so focused on hockey that they don’t have the capacity for much else. So whenever they’re not at the rink, guys are typically hanging out with their families or finding ways to unwind and decompress.
However, in the summer, it’s a different story. The Penguins have a lot more free time on their hands, and with it, the ability to pick up a hobby or two. They discussed the ones they’d most like to add to their repertoires (we may have to check back once training camp starts to see how much progress they made).
CAMPING
SIDNEY CROSBY
The captain lives on a lake in his native Nova Scotia, which is right off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, so he’s out on the water a lot. And while he enjoys that, of course, he’d actually like to spend some more time on land in addition to the sea.
“I don’t really camp a lot, but I’d love to do a little bit more of that,” Crosby said. “So get a little bit better with the outdoorsy stuff, maybe. I like being outside, like being active.”
As he joked to AT&T SportsNet rinkside reporter Dan Potash, he’s not necessarily talking about the type of camping where you go completely off the grid and have to rely completely on nature, like sparking a fire with two rocks… but he’s also not ruling it out, either.
“I’d love to be able to do that,” Crosby said with a laugh. “I mean, I don’t have the skills. I’d be putting myself in trouble if I went out there right now and had to do all that, but yeah, I’d love to learn how to do some of that stuff “
Crosby would also like to try his hand at something a few of his Current and former Penguins teammates got into during the quarantine period of the pandemic.
“I’m terrible at doing woodworking, so maybe one day that’s something I could work on a little bit, too,” Crosby said. “I don’t really have any skills when it comes to that. So I’d like to be able to do some of that stuff, especially around the house.”
FISHING
JEFF CARTER AND BRYAN RUST
Jeff Carter spends his offseasons in California, as he spent 10 years playing for the Los Angeles Kings before getting traded to Pittsburgh. As a father of three, he’s usually pretty busy, but would like to do more fishing with the free time that he does have.
“I enjoy it, I do a little bit, but I’d like to get out there a little more,” Carter said.
Rickard Rakell, who also has a place on the West Coast after so many years with Anaheim, is a fellow fan of fishing, especially back in his native Sweden. Although he is from the southern part of the country, he and his wife Emmeli moved up north, which is where she is from – and so is Marcus Pettersson. Rakell will have to take his roomie out with him sometime the next time they’re both home.
“Where I’m from in Sweden, a lot of people fish during the summer,” Pettersson said. “I’ve never really been a fisherman, so that’s something that I kind of wanted to be interested in, but didn’t have the patience for.”
Bryan Rust has also been wanting to pick up the sport for a while now. “I got a place on the water in the summertime, but just haven’t really gotten into fishing yet,” Rust said. “I think one of these years, I’m going to have to do it. There are a few guys on the team who are big fishermen, and I’ll probably have to get some pointers from all of them.”
GOLF
CASEY DESMITH AND BRIAN DUMOULIN
Disc golf is one of Casey DeSmith‘s biggest passion outside of hockey, and while he mostly does it recreationally, the goaltender is also registered with the Professional Disc Golfers Association (PDGA) so that he can play in tournaments. As he’s pretty much conquered that style of golf, next up is the more typical form.
“I wish I was better at regular golf,” DeSmith said. “But maybe someday I’ll get there when I have more time.”
Brian Dumoulin feels the same way. The defenseman already has a ton of interests outside of hockey, namely being an avid food and wine connoisseur, but would like to add golf to that list.
“I think about golf a lot, watch it a lot,” Dumoulin said. “But I don’t play that much just because of the family, and I don’t belong anywhere. So that’s definitely one hobby I’d like to put more time into, but can’t.”
Maybe Kasperi Kapanen will let them use the golf simulator he got for his house last year to help them hone their abilities.
“Golf is something that really gets my mind off of hockey,” Kapanen said. “I started following it a bit more and I started playing it a bit more.”
COOKING
BROCK MCGINN
The Penguins forward got married this summer, and hopefully he and his wife Jamie received some wedding gifts that they’ll be able to use in the kitchen.
“During quarantine, we started doing a lot of cooking since you couldn’t go out to restaurants and stuff like that,” McGinn said. “So I think just watching cooking shows and then trying to learn as much as you can through that and create some meals yourself – that’s something that I’ve taken interest in here in the last little bit.”
Hopefully, he was also able to get in a few rounds on the links, as golf is something McGinn has been interested in as well.
TENNIS
KRIS LETANG
Unlike some of his teammates, the defenseman doesn’t really have the patience for spending 3-4 hours on a golf course. “I struggle with standing still and going slowly across the field to hit a ball every three minutes. That’s not my game,” Letang said. “I like to stay active. I like to feel that I sweat and I exhaust myself doing something.”
Instead, he’d rather whack a tennis ball across a net during the course of a high-paced match. “I would like to play more tennis, at one point get a teacher,” Letang said. “I like the sport. It takes a lot of athleticism and skill.”
PLAYING THE PIANO
CHAD RUHWEDEL
The Penguins defenseman is reaching for the stars when it comes to his ideal hobby.
“From a basic standpoint, I think learning to play the piano would be pretty cool,” he said. “I’m not musically talented at all, so I think being able to learn to play the piano would be a pretty cool skill.”
As for singing?
“That I guarantee I won’t be able to do,” Ruhwedel said with a laugh.
DIRT BIKING
JASON ZUCKER
Once the Penguins winger hangs up the skates for good, he’d like to get his three kids – Sophie, Hendrix and Stella – into the activity he loved. as a kid growing up in Vegaswhich is riding dirt bikes.
He still loves it, and in fact, it’s actually what helped Jason bond with his wife Carly when they first met. She was a sideline reporter for snowcross racing, and they had a shared love of action sports. But as Zucker progressed in his hockey career, he had to be a little more careful when it came to that kind of stuff.
“When I’m done playing, I would love to get back into riding dirt bikes and do that with my kids,” Zucker said. “ATVs, side by sides, all of that – in Vegas, that was what we did. We didn’t golf growing up, it was just that. And so, I’d love to get my kids into that when I’m done playing and I don’t have to worry about being quite as safe.”
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