There’s more to this series than a head-to-head battle between Eric Staal and Zach Parise, but the player that has won that battle has played on the winning team in each of the first four games.
It’s a battle that has been conducted on the scoresheet for the most part, but they saw more shifts against each other Tuesday, and Staal and the Canes came out on the winning end. Staal scored the game’s first goal, and his line helped keep Parise off the scoresheet for the first time in the series.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Staal told FS Carolinas during the first intermission. “He’s a good player. They’re a good line. It’s probably the first time this year we’ve gotten out against each other a little bit. For the most part, we’ve been going against some other lines.”
(Oddly enough, Ryan Bayda hosted Parise on his recruiting visit to North Dakota, making a successful sales pitch, and he outscored Parise as well on Tuesday.)
These two have been linked going back to their draft year, at least for this franchise. The Canes took Staal second overall in 2003, but Parise wasn’t far behind him on their draft board. It easily could have been the Canes moving into the 17th spot to take Parise instead of the Devils, who jumped from 22nd to 17th to get him.
But it wasn’t, and now these two are the current bearers of the franchise standards, All-Star forwards whose success will be telling for their team this postseason. So far, that has been the case in this series.
Luke has worked for The N&O since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist in August 2008. A native of Evanston, Ill., he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at (919) 829-8947, @LukeDeCock on Twitter or 
