Zack Parise could’ve made it easy on himself and just said the Minnesota Wild, seven points out of a playoff spot coming out of the All-Star break, need to take things one period at a time.
Instead, he delved a little deeper into that old hockey cliché.
“We can’t put ourselves in an every-game’s-a-win-or-season’s-over type scenario,” Parise said, per the Pioneer Press.
“You stress yourself out, and all of a sudden, mentally, you’re making the game a lot harder.
“You try to put it in small things where (Tuesday) night we’ve got to win the first period and then go from there. We can’t win the game right away, but we’ve got to win the first period. That’s got to be our approach as we go on through this road trip and the rest of the season.
“We know what the standings look like. That’s no secret. But we can’t make up all those points this week. We’ve got to start small.”
The Wild play tonight in Edmonton, Thursday in Calgary, and Sunday in Vancouver. That’s three winnable games right there, the last two against teams Minnesota could possibly run down for a playoff spot.
One period at a time, though.
One period at a time.