Uncle Denny’s Winnebago: Third Stop

Former ice hockey right winger and captain of The Minnesota Wild, Mark Parrish was visiting Uncle Denny’s Winnebago. He gives us a glimpse into how nomadic, yet fulfilling life as a professional hockey player can be. He played 11 seasons and over 700 games in the NHL with the Florida Panthers, New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Buffalo Sabres.

Parrish made the All-Star Team his rookie year in the NHL and was honored to play with Team USA at the Winter Olympics in 2006. He says that the Olympics were definitely the highlight of his career and describes how proud he felt pulling on the Team USA jersey.

Hockey players cover a lot of territory traveling to games. To pass the time Parrish and his teammates had massive movie quote-a-thons. George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot and the movie Young Blood were always favorites. According to Parrish, the two movies were  pretty much dead-on when it comes to the crazy world of hockey. Just compare the two videos below to see how accurate the movies are. The first video is from1979 of Mike Milbury in the epic fight between the Bruins & the Rangers. The second video is from the the movie Slap Shot.

 

 

I’d say Slap Shot’s depiction of the hockey world was right on the nose!

In a sport popular for it’s fighting, Parrish, managed to keep his devilishly-handsome face, well…devilishly handsome. And lucky for his lovely wife Nikki, I’m pretty sure he only lost one tooth. Lucky for ME, I can call both Mark and Nikki friends and was honored to have their entire family aboard Uncle Denny’s Winnebago. We had a blast! … you’ll also hear Mark answer questions from listeners talk about his Italian heritage describe ice fishing with his grandfather reveal his hair styling secrets react to Nikki’s revelation of his “hall pass”

Parrish ended his playing career during the 2012 NHL lockout and currently works as a color analyst on Fox-9 Sports for his alma mater, St. Cloud State.

Click here to see one of my favorite photo’s of color analyst, Parrish from @Russostrib.