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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: DEVILS v RANGERSMay 17, 2012Zach PariseNEWARK, NEW JERSEY: Practice Day THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone.  We'll open it up to questions for Zach . Q. Zach, you've got a day here today. Does it matter to have a day to clear your heads or clear your aches and pains or anything like that? ZACH PARISE: More so the aches and pains. I think it's nice to have these days off. I think that for us right now that's what it's about is taking advantage of these rest days and getting a little‑‑ trying to just recover a little bit. These two days will go by a lot quicker than winning that second game. It feels a lot better than having going into it with a loss. Q. How critical is it to the success of the team to outwork your opponent along the boards and in the corners? ZACH PARISE: For us, that's really important. When we're playing well, that's what we're doing. It's a challenge against the Rangers because that's what they're very‑‑ that's what they've been known for this year is out working their opponents and kind of owning the pucks down low and along the boards. I think we have to do a really good job of doing that if we want to beat these guys this series because that's the part that they're really good at. At the same time, when we're playing well, that's what we're doing really well. It's an area of our game that we're doing well when we're winning. Q. Has anything about the first two games surprised you so far? Has it been what you expected as far as not only the game but everything around it as far as how much attention we're giving you in the media, and all the miss cues that might come up or numbers that might come up? ZACH PARISE: I think it's everything that we were anticipating really from the hockey standpoint. We expected tight games. We expected not a lot of room out there from either team and games down to the wire. I guess from everything else surrounding it, it's definitely more media coverage than we've ever seen. So that part is a little different than the attention that it's getting, that the series is getting. That's a little different. But I think that's what you kind of have to expect when you're still playing at this time of the year. Q. I'm curious, generally speaking, at this time of the year when playing in the playoffs, how hard or easy is it to kind of keep yourself in that tunnel and not let other topics or things that might occupy your attention from doing that? In your case, your future next year, whether it's Kovy, what he had done in the playoffs past, and all the stuff that we in the media might deal with. How do you go about concealing yourselves from that? ZACH PARISE: I think it's pretty easy, honestly. Our focus from the even the start of the playoffs has been the same. I don't think we allowed anything to distract us. I don't think it's been overwhelming by any means. We've done a good job of concentrating on what we're doing and what we have to do, and not allowing these underlying stories to take over what we're trying to accomplish. Q. How do you personally go about dealing with that? Do you just stop going online and reading the paper, watching TV? What do you do to kind of keep your focus centered on the games at hand? ZACH PARISE: That's exactly it. You just kind of shelter yourself from that stuff. You don't read about it. You don't watch it. You watch the other games and things like that, but you turn your mind off from everything else that's happening and not allow yourself to get distracted. Q. How much of a difference has it made this year with the change for you guys? But as far as having the defense be so active in the offensive zone and not staying to the point and pinching and not backing up when the puck comes back? I think you had two goals basically off that last night. ZACH PARISE: That's so important. It's hard when your "D" aren't allowed to pinch, when your "D" aren't allowed to do that stuff and get involved because you're playing 3 on 5 all night. That's too hard. It makes the game too hard. It makes scoring too hard. So I think once our "D" started to be allowed to do that and get jumping in the play and getting involved in the offense, it opens things up for everybody. It opens up second opportunities. You're allowed to get more offensive zone time, and they've done a great job the whole playoffs of keeping pucks alive and keeping cycles going. Really hemming teams in their zone with how well they've been pinching. I mean, from a forward standpoint, it's kind of a relief to get those "D" men involved. It just makes life a lot easier. Q. To follow up on that. With the addition of Marek Zidlicky, to follow up on your answer there, how much has he helped that unit to pinch in, and how important has he been since he came over? ZACH PARISE: He's been really important, number one with the power play. He's done a really good job on the power play and moving the puck. Just a thing that can go under the radar is the fact that he's a right‑handed "D" man, and that's what we needed, along with Bernier, we needed another right shot. He's been great. They've played really well together. But just him, his skating ability, his patience with the puck has really helped us out a lot up front and kept plays alive. He makes a great first outlet pass. That was a really good acquisition for us that really gave us a new attack and a new dynamic that we were somewhat lacking. Q. You have Foster there, and he's the one with the big shot. But basically you're saying it was a good tradeoff? Get rid of that huge shot that Foster has, but bring in a guy that can do a little bit more? ZACH PARISE: I think after we got him, the numbers for our power play, our numbers started to increase, and our power play percentage went up a lot. So Foster did a really good job for us, and I think Zid was more of an upgrade. He's not as much of a shooter as Foster, but he's a really good passer. I think five‑on‑five Zid has a little‑‑ no disrespect to Foster at all, because he did really well for us, but I think Zid, again, has that skating ability and he adds a little more five‑on‑five than Foster did. Q. Is there a moment when you started to notice the Prudential Center becoming a true home ice for you guys? ZACH PARISE: Yeah, I think even our first game in Florida, despite we ended up losing that game. I think the atmosphere in there was great. I think we played pretty well there all year. I think our fans for whatever reason, you can tell how excited they are for where we're at right now, and the first round and second round. They made the building as loud as I've ever heard it, so that goes a long way. And we've all been saying it, too, we need them to be even louder and get more involved in this round. Q. Do you notice the percentage of blue shirts in there or is it the kind of thing you tune out when you're on the ice? ZACH PARISE: That type of thing you tune out. During the regular season if we were to get scored on, then you see them all cheering, and I think they cheer extra loud when they're in our building. That's when you realize how many Ranger fans we have in our building. But hopefully there won't be too many blue jerseys in the stands for these two home games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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