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Zach Parise earns second Islanders Player of the Week honors

02/14/2022

Zach Parise Islanders — Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

Parise continues to be one of the few bright spots on an underperforming Islanders team.

The New York Islanders resumed play post-All-Star break with an incredibly impressive five-goal first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. The remainder of the week after that period then went downhill.

They almost blew the lead to the Canucks and then went on to lose their next two games. They dropped a tough one to the Edmonton Oilers and were then destroyed by a high-powered Calgary Flames offense on Saturday.

The Islanders’ defense was uncharacteristically awful this week and with each loss, it’s becoming more and more difficult for the Islanders to make up ground in the standings.

Even though this was an ugly week for the Islanders, let’s take a look at some of the team’s bright spots, the Islanders who stood out among their peers.

You can check out the Islanders’ Week 15 player of the week and honorable mentions here.

Player of the Week: LW Zach Parise

@ VAN: 1 G
@ CGY: 1 A
Average Game Score: 1.03
Average defensive impact: -0.12

For the second time this season, the first-year Islander Parise is the team’s player of the week.

Parise is a serious bright spot on an Islanders team that should be much better than it is and has easily been the team’s best new player this season, although that isn’t saying much.

Parise was a top-five player for the Islanders in each of their three games this week and his Game Score of 2.16 against the Canucks is his third-highest of the season. That was also Parise’s 1,100th career game and he celebrated by scoring a goal.

PARISE! pic.twitter.com/GP4r3lcWjV

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) February 10, 2022

Parise hasn’t been the flashiest of players by any means in either zone, but he’s been incredibly valuable to this team and we saw that this week, which also happened to be his best week of the season so far.

We can make the case that he’s been the team’s hardest working player this season and fans are already calling for the team to re-sign him. This was another strong week for the veteran who really stood out.