New York Islanders defenseman 
Mark Eaton made his NHL debut during the 2000 season. He found his way into 27 games, but ended up back in the AHL the following season. He spent the next four seasons shuffling between the AHL Milwaukee Admirals and the NHL Nashville Predators before finally finding a home with the Pittsburgh Penguins prior to the ’06 season. He spent the next four seasons with the Pens, even recording 4 goals in the ’09 playoffs while winning the Stanley Cup. He signed with the Islanders prior to this season and has played in every game so far. More important to Eaton than his hockey career, though, is his family.
I had the opportunity to pose some questions to Eaton about his daughters, getting used to changes and the importance of playing sports as a youth.
On his children playing hockey…
No, I have two girls, 5 and 2. The youngest, all she’s done is dance. The oldest, no hockey, but she’s figure skated, she’s in soccer right now, she’s also danced. Being on Long Island, she’s been introduced to lacrosse so she’s looking forward to that in the spring.
On road trips away from the family…
No, that’s never happened (Family joining him on a trip). It’s tough, in particular the long ones. My oldest is 5 now and in kindergarten. She’s starting to understand. Like this past weekend, her school had the fall fair that she wanted me to take her on some rides but we were traveling to Toronto so we didn’t get to do it. It’s tough. You miss certain things like that, but you make the most of the times you are home and we’re fortunate enough to have summers off so you get to make up for lost time during the season.
On moving his family when he changed teams…
You always worry how adaptable your kids are. I’m fortunate that both my girls are pretty adaptable. The transition here has been pretty smooth for them. They’re both in school and they’re both loving it and they’ve made new friends fairly easy, so that’s more of a relief that that is the case, but there’s always that worry that moving around can be detrimental. But in this case it seems to have gone pretty smoothly.
On the benefits he gained as a child from playing hockey…
Well, I think the discipline and sacrifice. I grew up in Delaware where hockey’s really not that popular a sport, so I did a lot of traveling around and in particular when you’re in high school, you have to sacrifice the weekends to travel and play hockey. And those are things you have to do in the real world, in real life. So, to be able to learn that at a young age because of hockey was, I think, very beneficial for me. 
30 year old freelance writer and The Father Life‘s resident beer columnist and sports editor. He also writes about fine beverages for drinkingmadeeasy.com and Chilled Magazine. On top of that, he writes about college and professional lacrosse for insidelacrosse.com. He’s also written for Genesee Valley Parenting Magazine, the Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper and ESPN.com. “Osburn on Tap” appears monthly in THE FATHER LIFE. For questions, comments, or if you have a story idea for Chris, throw him an email cosburn@thefatherlife.com. Also, follow him on twitter http://www.twitter.com/chrisosburn
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