Zucker making the most of family time

Everyone's favorite rinkside reporter, Dan Potash of AT&T SportsNet, caught up with Penguins forward Jason Zucker via "DAN CAM" on Friday. Zucker, who is with his wife Carly and their three kids, Sophia, Hendrix and Stella, provided some updates as to what he's been up to these last few weeks.

* Zucker said the biggest positive of the current situation is getting to spend time with his family - though Hendrix, 2, and Stella, who turned a year old last week, have turned out to be quite the handful.
"The two young ones are maniacs," Zucker said with a laugh. "They're just running around the house and having a good time. We've just been chasing them around and trying to relax a little bit."
At first, Jason and Carly thought they were going to have all this extra time to work on a list of projects around the house that included cleaning out their storage room, cleaning up the basement and hanging up TVs and photos. "We're like, we're going to have 12 extra hours in a day!" Jason said. "But none of it has gotten done. None of it (laughs)."
After waking up early with Hendrix and Stella and running around with them, by the time the kids are ready for an afternoon nap, Jason and Carly are ready for one too.
"It's like, you know what? I'm just going to lay down and chill for a little bit, have a little quiet time," Jason said. "Then all of a sudden they're up again and you're running around again. By the time they go to bed, you actually get a couple of hours to sit down and just relax, so then we'll watch a show or something."

* In the meantime, Jason said that Sophia - who is turning 10 in a month - has been the easy one, especially since she's keeping busy with school online. Jason said he quickly learned that any help with homework should probably be left to Carly.
"All the math and that stuff, you're like, I have no idea what I'm doing," Jason said with a laugh. "I'm Googling things trying to help her with her math homework. My wife is a much better teacher than I am, so she is helping Sophia since she's a little bit smarter than I am."
Jason said it's been fun to see how Sophia has adjusted to her new routine - especially since he joked that if it were him, he'd probably be playing video games or going outside or watching TV instead of focusing on his classwork.
"She has to log in online and check in with her teacher," Jason said. "She has to do all of her assignments right online and send them in. She has to take 20-minute breaks to do some reading, so she'll go sit at her desk or sit in bed with a book. So it's been a fun adjustment for her."
Instagram from @carly.zucker: Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Hope it's a day full of yummy food and lots of gratitude ❤️ Thankful for this crew, a job I love, great friends, health and the endless support of GIVE16 🍁
* Speaking of adjustment, Zucker is doing the best he can when it comes to keeping in shape. He said for him personally, it's about doing some weights, doing some cardio and just trying to stay as active as possible since he isn't able to get on the ice (all of his equipment is back in Pittsburgh). Zucker also has a stickhandling area in his basement where he's been working on his puck skills.
"Nothing will ever come close to what you're doing on the ice, but the best you can do is stay in the best cardio shape you can," he said. "So it's a lot of running, biking, any of that stuff you can do. I'm actually a big fan of jump rope, so I'll jump rope for a while. That's something I've done for years and you don't realize how hard that stuff is until you get back into it and get out of your routine."
It wasn't that long ago Zucker was traded to Pittsburgh from Minnesota, so he is also trying to take advantage of this break to work on learning the details of the Penguins' team game.
"I am watching video," he said. "I'll go back and watch some video of our previous games and just try to catch some little (details). Especially for me learning the systems still. So I'm trying to do all that, just trying to stay active mentally with that as well."
* The conversation ended with Zucker talking about Give16, the fundraising campaign he and Carly started where the funds go directly to the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio. For more information on how to get involved, visit this link:
https://unrl.co/collections/give-1
TO HEAR JASON TALK MORE ABOUT GIVE16 AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER TOPICS, CHECK OUT THIS EPISODE OF THE SCOOP PODCAST PRESENTED BY PPG FROM EARLIER IN THE SEASON: