Welcome to the 2022-23 edition of the Wild Weekly Spotlight. Each Friday, we’ll track the progress of the players who are trying to help Minnesota make a playoff run down the stretch of the NHL regular season and give updates on other players from the previous week.
This is the 3rd edition of the 2023-23 Wild Weekly Spotlight.
SPOTLIGHT ON …
Left wing Marcus Foligno
There’s a lot to like about Foligno from a fan’s perspective.
He’s funny, personable and a great interview. Not to mention he has a cool nickname – Moose.
He’s a tough, physical player who is willing to drop the gloves when needed.
But he’s not one-dimensional and can score goals, too.
That last one has been a little bit slow to develop this season but perhaps Foligno is starting to get back on track – and just in time as Minnesota needs some firepower with Kirill Kaprizov sidelined for 3-4 weeks.
After potting 23 pucks last season, a career high, Foligno has but six in 51 games in 2022-23. Two of those came last week.
He got one at Calgary on March 4 then added another plus an assist in Wednesday’s win over Winnipeg.
Foligno is now on a line with newcomer Oskar Sundqvist, as well as Frederick Gaudreau, and perhaps being on with two playmakers will result in more goals.
Foligno isn’t overly concerned about his total, however, saying, after missing so much time this year due to injuries, he just wants to be in good form for the postseason.
“That's the end goal really, is just to be ready to go come the time it really, really matters,” Foligno said after the win over the Flames.
Well, that and continuing to be a physical presence – which hasn’t been much of an issue.
Despite battling those injuries and missing some time, Foligno leads the Wild in hits – by a large margin. He has 183. Brandon Duhaime is next with 115 in 39 games. Two others on the team have at least 100: Connor Dewar and Ryan Reaves each have 105.
Foligno is averaging more hits this season (3.59) than he did last year (3.22) when he finished with 238 hits, the second-highest total of his career.
He’s also ninth in the NHL in hits per game this season. Of those in the top 10, Foligno tops all in goals per game, even at his so-far reduced rate.
What’s not to like?
WILD THINGS
-- We mentioned Jared Spurgeon’s plus/minus rating last week and he was at it again, garnering a +3 combined in Minnesota’s three games. Spurgeon is now a +28. He’s twice reached +30 in his career: +33 in 2016-17 and +32 in 2021-22. Those rank No. 4 and 5 in a single season in Wild history. His +28 is currently No. 7.
-- In their first week with Minnesota, Sundqvist had two assists, four penalty minutes and was a +1 while defenseman John Klingberg didn’t rack up any points or PIM but was a +3.
-- A couple of goal droughts ended this past week. Matt Boldy had a 15-game streak without one before notching a goal (and assist) against Calgary. Meanwhile, Mason Shaw’s empty-netter at Winnipeg was his first to hit twine since Dec. 7. He had gone 27 games without scoring.
-- Needless to say it was a pretty good week for goalie Filip Gustavsson who didn’t allow a goal on 57 shots faced over two games. He even got the rare shutout in a loss (Minnesota losing in a shootout). He now has a 1.91 goals-against average and .935 save percentage.
-- Marc-Andre Fleury made 46 saves in his only outing of the week. It tied for his second-most saves in a game in his career – he had 47 in 2008 with Pittsburgh and three other times 46. This was the only one of the four in which his team won.
