It’s been over five months of waiting for Devils fans, but they’ll finally get to see Zach Parise back on the ice once again. While the Devils are essentially out of the playoff race, getting Parise back in the lineup is a big thrill for both Devils fans and for American hockey fans that fell in love with him during the Olympics.
Parise is coming back from a torn meniscus suffered back in November and while he’s been out the Devils were on a roller coaster fun slide to hell and back both reaching the absolute bottom of the standings and rebounding to get back into the playoff picture only to come up short.
One thing Devils fans can keep an eye out for is seeing Parise end up on the same line with old running mate Travis Zajac. Not for nothing Fire & Ice’s Tom Gulitti might just be the guy to thank for that.When I asked Lemaire if Parise would play with Zajac, he replied, “What do you think?”
I thought Lemaire was asking what I thought he would do, so I said, “Yes.”
“Yeah. OK, he’ll be with him,” Lemaire said laughing.
“Because I said so?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Lemaire said. “Anything else you want?”
Jacques the jokester. How do you not love that?
Devils fans will get an idea of what could’ve been tonight on Hockey Night in Canada as the Devils get to deal with the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal will be looking to keep the heat off from the Sabres and Rangers who each trail them by two points in the East. We’re pretty sure Lemaire and the Devils would like to close out their season being the monkey wrench in everyone’s playoff plans and expect this one to be as low scoring as possible as both Lemaire and Jacques Martin aren’t exactly gung ho with the offensive game plans.
As for Parise, we’ll be excited to see him back out there and to see if he can help prove to the Devils that he’s more than worth a major contract at the end of the season. Parise is an impending restricted free agent and the Devils will need to figure out what a superstar coming off a major knee injury is worth. Oh, the eventual drama.