CHICAGO – During the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, while facing the St. Louis Blues, Wild forward Zach Parise offered little in terms of praise. He kept saying that he doesn't like to talk about opponents during the playoffs.
Now that Parise is facing the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round, suddenly he is quite happy talking about the opponent.
My guess: He really didn't like or respect the way the Blues played, and, because he's such an honest guy, knew he couldn't say anything nice about that would be truthful.
Now he's facing a championship-caliber team with classy core players, and he's fine praising them.
``We know how good they, are and how good they can be, and we respect them,'' Parise said Friday after the Wild's morning skate at United Center. ``We respect how good they are and how much success they've had as a team. And we know that we have to play our best to beat them.''
The Blues tried to start fights, or bait the Wild into retaliation, after almost every whistle. The Blackhawks feature one instigator, in Andrew Shaw, but even he probably won't go the lengths that Blues forward Steve Ott did, patting Jason Zucker on the head.
``I don't think this is two teams that get in scrums after the whistle,'' Parise said. ``It's not like our first round where after every whistle there's a scrum. I just don't think the two teams are built like that. I think that both teams respect the way the other team plays and what they do.''
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