Zach Parise

After sending Twitter atwitter late Monday afternoon, free-agent left winger Zach Parise delayed his decision on a team, saying he needed more time to confer with his fiancée and family on where he would take his talents. The Flyers are among the teams that have made offers to Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter, the jewels of this year's free-agent market. Their decisions may be announced Tuesday. Speaking to reporters outside his agent's office in Toronto, Parise said he would return to his Minnesota home and discuss matters with his family.

You can give Team USA coach Peter Laviolette the benefit of the doubt for not playing his top veterans, Mike Modano and Doug Weight, on the same line in the world championships. Yet how do you explain asking Zach Parise, a 20-year-old playing in only his second senior international event, to take a penalty shot with 1 minute, 25 seconds remaining in a tied game? That's what Laviolette did yesterday in an ugly 1-1 tie against Ukraine, which took just nine shots in the game.

Sean Avery cleared waivers yesterday, and the next step for the Dallas Stars is to find a team for the controversial left wing to start playing again. Dallas placed Avery on waivers Saturday. As expected, no team claimed Avery, who signed a $15.5 million, 4-year contract last summer. Avery played only 23 games for Dallas before being suspended six games by the NHL on Dec. 2 for crude comments made about his ex-girlfriends dating other NHL players. A source told ESPN.com last night that Avery is expected to be assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League.

The Phantoms scored all their goals in the third period last night to edge the Albany River Rats, 3-2, in an AHL game at the Wachovia Spectrum. Patrick Sharp's goal 7 minutes, 1 second into the period gave the Phantoms a 3-1 lead and helped them end a four-game losing streak. Todd Fedoruk and Boyd Kane also scored for the Phantoms. Each added an assist as the Phantoms improved to 4-0 in their season series with Albany. Zach Parise and Dean McAmmond scored for the River Rats.

Zach Parise, David Clarkson and Matt Taormina scored and Martin Brodeur made 21 saves to help the streaking New Jersey Devils beat the host Montreal Canadiens, 3-1, on Sunday night. The Devils improved to 34-20-4 with their third straight victory and jumped past Atlantic Division rivals Pittsburgh and the Flyers into fourth in the Eastern Conference. Max Pacioretty scored for Montreal. The Canadiens have lost eight straight against New Jersey at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens last beat the Devils in Montreal on March 11, 2008.

Jaroslav Halak and the Montreal Canadiens beat the New Jersey Devils at their own game by combining sharp goaltending and timely goals. Halak made 31 saves, and Mathieu Darche had the go-ahead tally and an assist as the Canadiens ended a three-game losing streak with a 3-1 win at Newark, N.J. last night. Usually, Martin Brodeur makes the key stops and the Devils come through with clutch goals. Brodeur didn't play poorly, stopping 21 shots in his 28th straight start, but he dropped to 36-16-5 against his hometown Canadiens.

The goals finally came for Jay Pandolfo and the New Jersey Devils, giving hockey fans in Newark a reason to cheer. Jay Pandolfo scored three goals to lead New Jersey to a 6-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, giving the Devils their first victory at their new Prudential Center in Newark. John Madden scored a goal and assisted on all three of Pandolfo's goals. Aaron Asham and Zach Parise also scored for the Devils. Martin Brodeur, playing in his 900th game, made 21 saves as New Jersey halted a four-game losing streak, during which the Devils scored only four goals total.

The New Jersey Devils have signed forward Zach Parise to a 4-year, $12.5 million deal. Parise, 23, was New Jersey's second-leading scorer last season with 31 goals and 31 assists, and had seven goals and three assists in 11 playoff games. "I'm excited, it's definitely a weight off my shoulders so I don't have to worry about it and can just relax and get ready for the season," he said. "I'm hoping to take on more responsibility and be put in different situations and opportunities.

Ben Stafford's score in a shoot-out became the decisive one in the Phantoms' 5-4 AHL triumph over the Albany River Rats last night. The victory in Albany, N.Y., enabled the Phantoms to snap a five-game losing streak. Teemu Kesa's goal, which came at 10 minutes, 34 seconds of the final period, lifted the River Rats to a 4-4 tie, which held through the end of regulation. Albany, which lost its eighth straight game, outscored the Phantoms, 3-2, in the third period. Neither team connected in the overtime to force the shoot-out.

Players to watch FLYERS: Right winger Jaromir Jagr After a solid series against the Penguins, Jagr, 40, has looked slow in the first two games against the Devils. He has no points and just two shots, total, in this series. The No. 1 line of Jagr, Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell struggled mightily in the Flyers' 4-1 loss on Tuesday. DEVILS: Left winger Zach Parise With Ilya Kovalchuck ineffective in Game 1 and sidelined by an injury in Game 2, Parise has become the Devils' go-to guy. He had a goal and assist in the opener and the primary assist on the game-winner in Game 2. Three keys to the game   1. Can the Flyers put three solid periods together for the first time in this series?

Despite playing just one season for the Flyers, Jaromir Jagr, left a indelible impression. The owner of 681 career NHL goals, Jagr is scheduled to play his first game against his former team Tuesday night when the Boston Bruins visit the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center. Jagr had 19 goals and 35 assists for 54 points in 73 games with the Flyers last season and added a goal and seven assists in 11 playoff games. He signed as a free agent with the Dallas Stars in the offseason and was traded to Boston on April 2. So it was no surprise after Boston's morning skate on Tuesday that Jagr drew a crowd of media.

SAM GAGNER scored two of Edmonton's four goals in the first period and the visiting Oilers beat Chicago, 6-5, on Sunday night, sending the Blackhawks to their second straight loss after their record-breaking, 21-0-3 start. Ryan Whitney and Taylor Hall each had a goal and an assist for Edmonton, which snapped a five-game losing streak. Captain Shawn Horcoff also scored as the Oilers went 3-for-4 on the power play. Chicago set an NHL record by recording at least one point in the first 24 games.

THE NEW YORK Rangers traded rugged forward Mike Rupp to the Minnesota Wild on Monday for forwards Darroll Powe and Nick Palmieri. The deal was announced hours before the Wild faced the Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona. The Rangers have been looking for depth at forward to complement their top line of Rick Nash, Brad Richards and former Wild star Marian Gaborik. New York is also dealing with the loss of captain Ryan Callahan, who is currently sidelined by a dislocated shoulder. Powe, 27, has yet to record a point in eight games this season.

WHEN LAST we saw hockey, Simon Gagne nearly dropped the Stanley Cup and Justin Williams brought it to the Jersey shore. It made the interminable lockout even more painful for Flyers fans. After 4 months of posturing and pouting, itching and moaning, and just plain silliness, there will be hockey again. Here's a refresher on what transpired as well as some of the comings and goings since the Kings thumped the Devils to win their first title. Biggest trade The Columbus Blue Jackets sent perennial 30-goal scorer Rick Nash to the Rangers for three players and a first-round pick.

AT LONG LAST, U.S. Olympic teammates Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are together, after signing equal 13-year, $98 million deals in Minnesota within an hour of each other on the Fourth of July. Cashing a fat, $12 million bonus check for signing on the dotted line just seems so ... American. Another American, Matt Carle, added his own fireworks on Wednesday night by signing a mammoth 6-year, $33 million deal to return to Tampa Bay as the first dominoes began to fall. In Minnesota, both Parise and Suter left behind the only teams they have ever known in New Jersey and Nashville.

The Flyers made huge offers, but in the end, those offers fell on deaf ears. Left winger Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter, the prizes in this year's NHL free-agent pool, signed Wednesday with the Minnesota Wild, a team that hasn't made the playoffs in the last four seasons. Parise, a Minnesota native, and Suter each received 13-year deals for $98 million. That's an annual cap hit of $7.54 million each, which is the seventh highest in the NHL. The Flyers are believed to have offered each player a 12-year contract in the $100 million neighborhood.

Defenseman Bryce Salvador, a key cog in New Jersey's run to the Stanley Cup finals, re-signed with the Devils on Tuesday. Salvador, 36, who had four goals and 14 points in the postseason after a regular season in which he failed to find the net once, received a three-year deal worth $9.5 million. He finished second behind Los Angeles' Drew Doughty in postseason scoring among defensemen. Salvador played all 82 regular-season games for the Devils last season, a year after missing the entire season with a rare, inner-ear concussion.

The Flyers lost their top-line right winger, veteran Jaromir Jagr, to free agency Tuesday when the future Hall of Famer signed a one-year deal for $4.5 million with the Dallas Stars. In his only season with the Flyers, Jagr battled through groin injuries but still recorded 19 goals and 54 points, and his unmatched work ethic should leave a lasting impression on his former teammates. "The way he prepared for games and the way he practiced, it's good that the young guys got to witness that," general manager Paul Holmgren said.

IF YOU tuned into the NHL Network to cool off on Sunday afternoon expecting the annual free-agency frenzy, you actually ended up with a free-agency snoozefest. It's not as if there weren't big dollars thrown around, when free agency officially opened on Sunday at noon. Lesser-names like Jason Garrison, P.A. Parenteau and Brandon Prust cashed in on big-time offers, leaving marquee names Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to, rather appropriately, sleep on their mind-blowing offers. The only problem is that these two monstrous dominoes are putting the entire market on hold — with free agents from Matt Carle to Jaromir Jagr waiting for a lack of supply to increase their demand.

Ryan Suter and Zach Parise chose to take time to sort through offers from a slew of suitors on the first day of NHL free agency. "I don't expect a quick decision," Suter's agent, Neil Sheehy, wrote in an email Sunday to The Associated Press. Parise, meanwhile, said he thinks he'll make a decision by Monday after not signing a deal to stay with New Jersey and becoming a free agent. "I'm not at liberty to say right now who's in or anything like that," Parise told reporters.