If you go seven months without seeing an acquaintance, you might greet them with, “Wow, you look so….” The word the Devils and Kings need here is hairy. These teams last met in October and it’s a wonder if they’d recognize each other now without the numbers on their backs.
Each team has been presented with one trophy this year. Both captains opted not to touch their Conference chalices, but only one will lift the Cup in 2012.
Will a playoff beard be the first to kiss Lord Stanley’s prize, or find itself waiting to see whom the captain hands the Cup to next?
The fates came out of their hole, looked for their shadows and decreed we shall see more of this:
And no more of this:
Okay, maybe one more:
We extend sympathies to our Flyers fans. Yes really, even though I hate them. Losing sucks no matter if you’re my team or a great looking guy in an ugly suit. Reasons and examinations for the loss, please report immediately to October where you’re all meaningless.
A big congratulations to our Devils fans. NJ gave a huge performance, and frankly their discipline scares the crap out of me. After watching the Flyers expose every single Penguins weakness then strip and sell them for parts, I thought they were rolling. But NJ never gave Philly an inch, never let them crack that shell. On top of great hockey, they played a great mental game.
The Devils await the winner of the Rangers/Capitals series. I can’t say anything else for fear of a jinx, but more on this after round two is over.
It’s astonishing that we’ve never Foxy Friday-ed Zach Parise before. He is the epitome of what your mother hopes you bring home someday – handsome, talented, and he can read. Seriously, he does charity work for the NJ library system. To dislike Zach Parise is to hate reading, and your mother would be very disappointed.
You already know that Zach is American, because he scored the gold medal game-tying goal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Remember that game all your friends were watching, screaming at the TV and saying “hockey is so great!”? You resisted throwing Doritos and politely reminded them you’ve been saying this for twenty years.
Well, that’s how I remember it.
No doubt you heard a hundred thousand hockey fans collapse from exhaustion just after midnight when the Devils finally scored in double OT to beat the Florida Panthers and advance to the second round. I couldn’t watch the game, but you guys were stressing me out just via Twitter. I’m sorry I missed it!
Celebrating the singe-OT winner in Game 6.
Parise has played seven seasons for the Devils. He missed most of ’10-’11 with a knee injury then signed a one-year contract in July 2011 to avoid salary arbitration. In October he was named team captain, but has not signed a long-term deal and would become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
The team has openly said that signing Zach is their top off-season priority, while right now everyone is focused on winning [New York Times]. It’s a tough situation when every win only makes Parise more attractive to other teams – teams with salary cap space and early-ended playoff dreams of their own, like Ottawa and Florida [BleacherReport.com].
“He’s the heartbeat of our team,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “When your captain is your hardest-working player, he drags people with him, and that’s a great situation to be in as a coach.” [NJ.com]
Off the ice, Zach enjoys golf (we enjoy driving the cart) and cribbage (don’t know what that is, willing to learn) His favorite movie is The Count of Monte Cristo, and we assume he’s also read the book. Just watch this interview… but don’t show it to your mom. You will never hear the end of, “When is that nice Zach boy coming over for dinner?”
I’m sorry, but ‘Press Your Luck?!’ The Gravitron?! I haven’t been thrown up on in one of those since day camp. Come on, my mom will drive us to the fair!
Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Your Last Name Here, it's so nice to meet you.
The Devils open their series vs. the Flyers on Sunday at 3 PM. After what happened in round one, you can guess what I would like Zach & Co. to do to Philadelphia.
Raise your hand if you asked Brian Rolston to your high school prom.
Really, just me?
There are a lot of hockey-related things I could fire my HS BFF for, but this is not one of them. This was a solid decision back in the day. Of course I knew he would say no, what with being plenty older than I am and AHL hockey being over by June. And what my hair looked like those days. But still… I asked him (circa 1996).
This past May, I pretty much ran away from Steven Stamkos on an empty street. My skills are not improving.
The Devils traded Brian to the Islanders last week. Then they signed Zach Parise to a one year deal that probably means his days in NJ are numbered. Get this – the Islanders are taking players on to reach the NHL minimum payroll under the current salary cap: $48.3 million. Time for a shopping spree (and more cupcakes).
Zach Parise is 27 today, which incidentally is my favorite number ever on a Devils sweater (Niedermayer!). I was about to abbreviate Zach’s name to ZP, but I think I’ll just call him Zippy from now on.
Zippy wants a contract for his birthday. He and the Devils are scheduled for arbitration on Wednesday. Zach missed almost all of last season with a knee injury, though almost made a comeback at the very end. If they’d made the playoffs, perhaps he would have. As is, it’s been a long lonely lonely time without him. The Devils certainly felt it last season, even with their salary cap woes and surprising burst of late-season success.
Zippy made $5 million last year, up from $2.5 and $3 million the years before. In early July, he said he’d take a 1-year deal to avoid arbitration but that the goal is a long-term contract. Arbitration is a last resort and sometimes gets ugly, so here’s hoping Zippy and the Devs get something locked up before then.
Before the injury, Zach had a great seasons in ’08-09 (94 points) and ’09-10 (82 points). The Devils made the playoffs both years but were eliminated in the first round. And of course, there was this goal. The shining time in which average Americans cared about hockey for one whole afternoon.
So happy birthday, Zip. Get signed and get back out there soon.
Hockey season is long. So long, in fact, that you sometimes forget things. When is the last time you saw this face?
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely...
Zach Parise went out October 30 with a knee injury that was projected to take 3 months. We’re closing in on the 5 month mark and there’s talk that Parise may return to the Devils’ lineup next week. [link]
Remember when I scored 45 goals?
Zach’s had a long year of watching Day of our Lives and doing 10,000-piece puzzles. The Devils had a horrific start and a mostly terrible season that turned into a terrific run over the last few weeks. They were maybe almost kind of closing in on a playoff spot… but last night they lost to Boston, leaving them 9 points out with only 9 games to go. Even if Parise got back and was in full form, it would take a minor miracle to pull that off.
Remember when I tied the Olympic gold medal game with 24 seconds left?
If I’m Zach, I want to play. He’s at the end of a 4-year, $12.5 million contract and the Devils have salary cap problems that look like the US budget deficit. Maybe they dump other contracts to keep him, maybe they shop him around. It will help his value in any case if teams see him on the ice, playing. You don’t buy a car without a test drive.
That said, what is the point? To rush back from any injury is a bad idea, and if something took 2 extra months to heal I say you should go easy. Like all summer easy. There’s a lot to lose and for the NJ Devils at this point, very little to gain.
While Dawn Cherrie and I were on a double date last night with Mike Green and Ovie, the rest of the NHL’s top 20 stars partied with Graydon Carter and the fancypants folks at Vanity Fair. Well, fancy-ish. Guests included “actor” Tom Cavanaugh and Olympic ice skater Evan Lysacek. It kills me that we’re not famous, because NHL events get the lamest D-list celebrity turnouts ever. I like Tom Cavanaugh, but if you have to say “actor” in front of someone’s name, then the title is questionable at best. Like if you have “Bootylicious” written on the ass of your sweatpants. Just as the NHL Awards were a parade of “It’s that guy from that thing!” and “Is Smallville still on TV?”, this Vanity Fair party seems to have been solely bolstered by Carter’s Canadian-ness. And for that, we thank him.
Zach Parise is so cute.
The rest of the NHL Media Tour crew was there, including Malkin, Toews, Kaner and my second-favorite Staal, Eric. We bet Kane’s the only one who had any fun, hopefully joyriding around NYC in Lundqvist’s special edition bus. After Ovie ditched me and Mike Green (apparently not on the guest list), he graced the party with his presence. In a t-shirt.
Sid and Ovie did a photo shoot for an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair. If you listen closely, you’ll hear a lot of screaming between Seattle (Dawn) and San Francisco (Pants). There’s plenty of video and photo content of yesterday’s media tour at NHL.com, including Dion Phanuef talking about what makeup he likes to wear and EStaal talking about his butt. Quality.
Before the party, Dawn and I let Mike Green and Ovie take us to a Russian restaurant. Except they sat next to each other, so maybe we should be worried? Dawn took this photo with her decoder ring camera, so as not to appear all fangirl in the moment, then ran to the bathroom and totally spazzed out. Ovie had 11 shots of vodka and asked to borrow Mike’s Lamborghini. I pretended to know what borscht was and tried not to think about Mike’s bathroom. I’m pretty sure Mike was thinking about Mike. As usual.
I would only eat borscht for Mike Green.
(Photo from @washcaps, which I think must be run by a girl because it’s pretty awesome.)
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