With Zach Parise’s kids starting winter break next week, it means the family will spend a rare week together.
The Islanders will play their last game before Christmas on December 23, then Parise will travel home to Minnesota for 3 league days off. When the team resumes play on December 27, his wife and kids will give you the chance to come back to Long Island one week before the Islanders’ recent yr opening in Seattle.
Such is life now for 38-year-old Parise, who signs a one-year contract with the Islanders along with his nine-year-old twin and girl, and youngest son, aged 4. All of it boils right down to negotiating his love of hockey and his desire to proceed playing against his family’s influence. He’s in his second season with the Islanders but the family stayed in Minnesota where he grew up and played from 2012 to 2021 when he got here to Latest York. After they see a spot on the calendar that matches for spending time together, they’ve learned to leap into it.
“It’s tough,” Parise told The Post. “They miss their dad. We do our greatest to see them as often as possible. So is my schedule, their schedule [will allow]. They’re busy with sports, school matters, but we do our greatest to see them as often as possible. I’d be lying if I said it was easy.”
Parise has learned to keep up a work-life balance that has turn out to be essential for somebody who remains to be capable of playing at a high level in the NHL. He has scored nine goals to date this season and appears set to have his highest tally since he scored 25 in the 2019-20 season. He still plays minutes on each special teams, still enjoys being part of the locker room, and still desires to challenge for his first Stanley Cup title.
Last season, when he only scored once in the first 33 games of the season, he kept his head up, telling himself more productive days would come. Now, having more comfort in his surroundings, they’ve.
“When every part changes, you learn recent faces, a recent dressing room, only a recent system,” Parise said. “…I’m not saying it was hard; these guys are the easiest bunch of guys to match. But this yr it went a bit easier, knowing your surroundings a bit higher.”
He understands that his NHL profession is over and needs to make the most of it. But his kid’s growing up also has its time constraints, and prioritizing one inevitably comes at the expense of the other.
“There has at all times been this sense [of being] he was a contradiction in that, really,” he said. “While you miss things they’ve at home, it’s hard. It is also understanding that this job doesn’t last eternally, you may’t play eternally. So long as you’re feeling you may play in the league, you wish to keep playing for so long as possible. There’s rather a lot to contemplate.
He can also be weighed down by the desire that his children share in the experience of his exceptional work. Parise remembers growing up with access to the Minnesota North Stars locker room though his father’s football profession ended before he was born. All three of his children are playing – the 4-year-old has just began – and his daughter asked for a Matt Martin T-shirt for Christmas.
Even when they can not be there to observe it every night, he knows it is a special experience.
“I like it as a parent to see them go right down to the glass during the warm-up or go into the locker room,” Parise said. “…They feel they’re part of it. It’s really cool that they’ll experience it. Just things other kids cannot do.”
Still, since his wife, Alisha, spends her time driving the kids to and from the rink and watching them play, Parise desires to be more involved. He spent a while helping coach one of his kid’s youth teams last summer and imagines he’ll accomplish that more after retirement.
When he’s in Latest York, Parise lives just a number of houses away from Brock Nelson, one other Minnesota resident whose children are with him on Long Island – a product that each are younger than Parise, and Nelson has a long-term contract.
“Not having a family could be difficult,” Nelson told The Post. “… It’s definitely a change of pace while you haven’t got kids and chaos at home. [But] I believe everyone would relatively have them there.”
With the season not even halfway over, Parise just isn’t able to make any big retirement announcements. He admits there’ll come a time for that call, but not now, not with the Islanders in the midst of a playoff fight.
“Try to not go down this road too often, but who knows what is going to occur after the season,” he said. “But yes, of course, that can be an enormous factor. Like I said, it wasn’t easy. I comprehend it wasn’t easy for them, for my wife. We’ll see.”
The subsequent list is moving
While coach Lane Lambert just isn’t in the business of discussing anything resembling a deal, it will be a surprise if the Islanders head west for 3 games without adding a defender to their lineup, assuming Adam Pelech is not able to return with an alleged concussion. If Bridgeport’s AHL weren’t so close, it will be fiddling with fire for 3 games without someone on site in case of one other injury.
Furthermore, with Kyle Palmieri skating with the team on Tuesday morning and traveling to Arizona, his eventual comeback from the injured reserve seems more prone to require one other move. Putting Pelech in the Injury Reserve retroactively to December 6 looks like a simple fix as the Islanders could then activate him at any time, avoiding sending anyone down until that happens. This may allow them to delay a final decision on Hudson Fasching, Simon Holmstrom or Ross Johnston.
In fact, the sooner the Islanders can return to their 22-man roster, the higher, as it’ll allow them to amass more room ahead of the March 3 trade deadline. Nonetheless, at the moment Fasching is doing every part in his power to make it harder for the Islanders to send him back to the AHL as an alternative of Johnston, who remains to be a healthy scratch despite the absence of Palmieri and Anthony Beauvillier from the forward group.
A word about Josh Bailey
Criticism of Josh Bailey emerged on social media after his shooting attempt missed the net on Tuesday, sealing the Islanders’ loss. This wasn’t unexpected as Bailey is a frequent punching bag on Twitter, though his 15-year profession on Long Island was an unmistakable success.
So let it not go unnoticed that Bailey had his best game of the season against the Bruins in response to House Luszczyszyn GameScore model, with a goal and an assist as the second line, including him, Nelson and Cal Clutterbuck, went 2–0 on goals for 8:24 ice time. Nobody will deny that Bailey slowed down a bit at 33. But this just isn’t the moment when shouting in his direction is especially justified.