Parise in his best moment as a Devil

It’s already been nearly two years since Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, when one-time Devils captain Zach Parise scored the opening goal in a 2-1 Devils win.  In the twenty-one plus months since Parise’s last game in New Jersey, obviously a lot has happened – between the ‘dream team’ like hookup of Parise and boyhood friend Ryan Suter in Minnesota less than a month after the Finals, another lockout, the Devils’ other superstar winger Ilya Kovalchuk going home to Russia and swimming in rubles, and most likely two straight seasons of missing the playoffs. Make no mistake, if there was any chance of a muted reception towards Parise tonight given all the time that’s elapsed and the relatively non-combative departure of Parise, it’s pretty much evaporated given the Devils’ precarious position.  Five points behind Columbus (with them having a game in hand) and seven behind anyone else for a playoff spot, it seems as if this schedule was timed perfectly to push the Devils off the cliff in the most excruciating week possible, a week full of reunions and rivalries at the Rock.

Obviously on Tuesday one-time fired coach Claude Julien got the best of us yet again, with our PP-aided comeback win in Boston earlier this season and a meaningless Fan Appreciation Day game in 2011 being the only times we’ve beaten the Bruins since the 2009-10 season.  Thankfully I followed through on my promise to boycott the last two games…apparently the team themselves no-showed both as well.  Not only is Parise coming back tonight but Sunday’s game against the Leafs features the return of David Clarkson after he left as a FA last summer.  And oh yes, the Yankee Stadium rematch on Saturday with the final game of the season between the Devils and Rangers.  A home-dominated stretch that at one time looked to be a catapult for a fast finish now looks like the most tortorous way to be eliminated short of losing to the Rangers in the playoffs, or what happened against Carolina in 2009.

With the Devils’ impending elimination and the specter of two lost seasons as a backdrop, Parise comes back as a convenient target for the fans’ venom.  Especially since Kovalchuk won’t be coming back to an NHL rink anytime soon.  Not that Parise doesn’t deserve grief for stringing the Devils along, publicly crying about wanting a long-term extension for eighteen months then not signing one.  As well as the public admission that he and Suter were texting during the season discussing FA while Parise was in the midst of captaining the Devils to a playoff run.  At least he didn’t go to the Flyers or Penguins the way he could have in the summer of ’12 with the Flyers supposedly offering both him and Suter even more money than the Wild did, but apparently Suter didn’t want to come East according to none other than Devils GM Lou Lamoriello – who admitted after Parise left he explored bringing in the ex-Predator defenseman in FA as well.  And to his credit, Parise didn’t publicly throw former ownership under the bus for the money issues the Devils were having at the time.

For his part, Parise has seen Devil fan reactions to various FA departures like Scott Gomez and Paul Martin before, and he admitted he expects to be booed:

“I’m expecting it,” he said. “It’s fine. They’re passionate about their team and it’s understandable. I guess if they wouldn’t even care to acknowledge that I was back, that would be a little different…I’ve said it before: what’s important to me is how good I was treated when I was there.  I understand sports. Fans love their players and their teams and they don’t want to see players leave. But the part I’ll remember most is how good they were to me when I was there, and that’s what matters.”

While it’s true we have booed some guys, Devil fans aren’t entirely without feeling…others like Brian Gionta, John Madden and Brian Rafalski who left as FA’s got cheered every time they came back.  Even Jamie Langenbrunner got polite applause on being introduced in the lineup during his return despite a messy exit in 2010-11.  That said Parise’s going to be firmly in the Gomez/Martin camp as far as fan reaction.  Maybe his departure wasn’t as bloody as it could have been but it was still painful having your captain and a homegrown Devil leave town weeks after the team’s inspiring playoff run that came up just short of the ultimate prize in LA.  Although honestly I’m booing Parise at this point more because he’s a convenient outlet for our failed two seasons – which let’s be honest, was in large part caused by his departure.  Plus Daddy Dearest didn’t thrill me at the time either, as JP made all sorts of inflammatory public comments in the months leading up to Zach’s depature.  Of course you’re free to do what you want in FA…and conversely fans are also free to react how they’re going to react, especially when the player acts one way and then does an about-face when push comes to shove.  At least for all the deserved crap Gomez gets, he never made any bones about the fact he was going to free agency.   It wouldn’t shock me if Suter was booed too, by extension.

It’s true tonight isn’t the first game Parise will be playing against the Devils (a forgettable 4-0 loss up there in November was his first game against his former mates) but make no mistake about it, he won’t just be playing the Devils tonight…he’ll be playing the fans too, although he’ll do his best to block out the inevitable reception he gets.  And dressing within yards of the locker room he called home for years, although this time he’ll be wearing the number eleven dressed in white and green – with Wild captain Mikko Koivu wearing #9, ironically enough.  I’m not even getting into previewing the game itself, sadly tonight’s not about the game although yes it would be nice to stick it to Parise and his team a little bit, they are seven points up on a playoff spot after all while we’re five back of one.  So even playing spoiler is unlikely, win or lose with the Wild likely to make the playoffs for a second straight season since Parise and Suter got there.  If anything tonight’s just about avoiding embarassment in a two-season long stretch of embarassments.  I could easily picture a 3-1 game with Parise sealing it on an empty-netter late as boos rain from the sky.