Zach Parise has the same routine before every game.
After taking a saw and cutting the knobs of his sticks, after fiddling with the blades and the tape, the Wild's leader grabs his iPod, tiptoes down the tunnel and into an almost empty arena, sits in the middle of the Wild bench and places one of those Easton composites across his lap.
From there, Parise will spend five or 10 minutes examining every square inch of the ice. He'll look left, he'll look right. He'll look in the corners, to the front of the net, to the faceoff circles. He performs the same mental exercise before every single game.
He's always alone on that bench. Saturday night though, he looked really alone.
Parise is playing through immense pain right now. Not physical pain, but emotional pain. The stress he's under, the burden he's playing with, the sorrow he's feeling is written across his face anytime you look at him.
J.P. Parise, the beloved former North Star and husband to Donna and father to Zach and older brother, Jordan, is in dire straits. Diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer last January, J.P. spent a month in the hospital earlier this fall due to the effects of chemotherapy.
He finally said enough to the chemo that was causing him so much discomfort and sickness. In the past few weeks, the 73-year-old has deteriorated.
"It's hard to watch," Zach Parise said Saturday night, a half-hour after the Wild suffered the worst loss he has experienced during his three seasons with Minnesota — a six-goal defeat at the hands of the relocated franchise for which his father used to star.
