The Islanders' Zach Parise skates during training camp at Northwell Health Ice Center on Sept. 23. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
ST. PAUL, Minn. — J.P. Parise is "always on all of our minds," his son Zach said last week, remembering his father nearly seven years after his death from lung cancer.
But when the younger Parise came here as an Islander on Sunday night to face the Wild, the family connection and Zach’s connection to Minnesota were on the minds of people far beyond the Parise family.
Start with the similarities in career paths, with both father and son going from long stretches in the Twin Cities – J.