NHL star faces one of the toughest battles of his life.

As many Wild fans probably know by now, Zach Parise has had to deal with off the ice issues this entire season. His father, and former NHL All-Star J.P. Parise has been battling with stage 4 lung cancer for some time, somethign that has impacted his ability to participate in things liek the father/son road trip earlier this year. J.P. Parise recently made the decision to stop his chemotherapy treatment, a decision that has become more and more common when it's clear the treatment is not going to work. Zach Parise spoke to the Star Tribune about how the ordeal has impacted him.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. You try and find that separation, you try to come here and be around the guys and not think about it, and Yeozie [coach Mike Yeo] has been really good and the team’s been really good giving me the day off [Thursday], saying basically, ‘Just show up for games.’ “They’ve been really supportive about it, but the hard part about it is you try to go to the rink and forget about stuff, but the hard part is … this was kind of our thing.”

Despite having 30 points in 32 games this season Parise has been critical of his play on the ice, and one has to imagine that the off the ice issues are having a huge impact on his frustrations. Perhaps the most telling moment came when Parise made this comment to the Star Tribune about his father's cancer  "He doesn’t deserve it.” I'm sure many of our readers have had the unfortunate experience of losing a loved one to a battle with cancer, we ask that you keep Zach Parise and his family, especially father J.P. in your thoughts and prayers.