Few players — especially lately, it seems — get mugged as frequently as Zach Parise does around the opposing net.
Yet for some reason, despite being one of the NHL's hardest-working players and coming off a season-ending back injury, referees don't protect the Wild veteran as much as some inside the Wild organization believe they should.
Parise, to his credit, just shrugs off the abuse he receives and even kidded with referee Ian Walsh on Saturday night against Nashville that if defenseman Ryan Ellis can get away with inflicting him with "six shots, I should be able to give one."
Instead, Parise was escorted to the penalty box after retaliating against Ellis.
"That's the part I don't understand," Parise said. "You go there, defensively they can give you five, six, seven cross-checks in the back, but the second you turn around and give them one, you're going. It's always been like that. I don't understand why.
"It gets frustrating. It's almost like when there's a rebound there, pretty much anything goes. So a guy can just come at you from 5 feet and cross-check you across the numbers and you can't do anything. You can't even protect yourself."
Parise has drawn 13 penalties this season and is fourth on the Wild with 1.03 penalties drawn per 60 minutes of ice time.
Yet Parise is usually a player who takes the beating, gets up and doesn't even look at the referee. He often just plays on, and he picked up his 14th goal of the season in the third period against the Blackhawks on Tuesday night by redirecting a Marco Scandella shot in front of the net.