He's playing for his father.

He's playing in his hometown.

He's playing to fulfill his hockey-lifetime contract.

He's playing for the joy of being an athlete in his prime, at the height of his skills, for a team that has learned to turn promise into points.

Zach Parise spent Thursday morning urging his teammates to remember how to play hockey the hard way, the right way.

He spent Thursday night making a contentious game look easy as tic-tac-toe.

In the Wild's season opener, Parise scored three points as the Wild beat Colorado 5-0 at the Xcel Energy Center.

He probably figures it was the least he could do.

Parise has dedicated this season to his father, who is in the advanced stages of lung cancer. If Zach's play Thursday was offered as an homage, it was a poetic one.

"He wasn't able to come tonight," Parise said. "It's pretty tough. Yeah, definitely, I was thinking about him at the beginning of the game. It was going through my mind."

The person asking about J.P. Parise promised not to constantly bring up his father's health. "Hey," Parise said, with a wan smile and a shrug. "It's reality."

J.P. would have enjoyed seeing this game in person. His son put on a show.

On the first goal of the game, after Ryan Suter's breakout pass hit Mikael Granlund, and he fired toward the net, Parise crashed toward the goalie, leaving Jason Pominville wide open for a tap-in.

On the second goal, Granlund and Pominville won a battle for the puck, kicking it to Parise, who fed Jared Spurgeon for a one-timer on a night when the Wild's defense constantly cycled toward the net.

On the third goal, Granlund won a faceoff and Parise took it from there, skating around a defenseman, firing a shot on net, hitting the goalie with the rebound before backhanding in his first goal of the season.

On the fifth goal, Parise brought the puck from behind the net and spotted Suter, feeding him a backhand pass for a slapshot that made it 5-0.

The Wild was on its way to a blowout choreographed by its star. Parise earned his 29th career three-point game, and helped the Wild outshoot Colorado by a ridiculous margin: 48-16.

This didn't feel like a first chapter. It felt like a mission statement.

"I was a little nervous this morning," Parise said. "But I thought we responded pretty well. That was five guys playing together."

Leadership is hard to quantify but easy to identify.

This is what it looks like: Parise crashing the net. Parise digging pucks out of the corner. Parise finding open teammates all over the ice.

This is what it sounded like Thursday morning, when Parise worried that his team wouldn't be ready to play: "The most important thing is to understand how we played and what worked for us and what worked for us last year and how hard we were to play against at the end of the season," he said. "There were times we'd go 10, 12, 14 minutes without giving up a shot on net. That frustrated the other team and made us successful. We can't afford to get too much of a fancy game early in the season."

What's funny is that the Wild played so effectively on defense, so thoroughly dominated puck possession, that the shots came easily.

"Those games are fun," Parise said. "We're getting chances a lot. Our line is playing well. That's the way we want to play and support each other. And when we had a chance, tonight I thought we did a good job of bringing it to the net."

Before the game, the Wild unveiled their new scoreboard. Unlike a lot of previous seasons, the creature comforts offered by the X were overshadowed by actual hockey.

"You have to have the confidence that we're going to do the right things," Parise said. "We're not going to score five every night, but we can play the right way every night."

J.P. would approve of that message.

Jim Souhan can be heard weekdays at noon and Sundays from 10 to noon on 1500 ESPN. Twitter: @SouhanStrib.

jsouhan@startribune.com