Wilderness Walk: Marcus Foligno playing through injury

That’s Wild

• It did not look good when Minnesota Wild winger Marcus Foligno took the entire brunt of Kurtis MacDermid’s knee in the final game of the season. He missed the remainder of that eventual victory, but he is going to be climbing back through sheer will and playing through a certainly painful injury. [The Athletic]

“It’s the playoffs. That’s my biggest answer,” Foligno said when asked how he felt. “It’d feel wrong sitting out and just tried to get back and obviously feeling a lot better (Saturday) and got good news from docs. Just something you gotta play through for a while, and I can do that. Obviously, there’s a little bit more equipment on the knee, but other than that, I feel pretty good, skating-wise, and I wouldn’t be out there if I didn’t feel like I could play. So, I feel pretty good.”

• Speaking about the hit, head coach Dean Evason was a little pissed off given the context that it is the very last game of the season and there was just no reason to do it. [Hockey Wilderness]
• We starting our Learning The Blues series to get everyone educated enough to talk to your friends about this upcoming series against the St. Louis Blues. First, it was the forwards we looked at. [Hockey Wilderness]
• Then, we had a look at the blue line of this stupid Blues team and compared it to the Wild’s. [Hockey Wilderness]
• And then, we looked at the special teams and what might be the most important factor in this series. [Hockey Wilderness]
• Blues GM Doug Armstrong was only showing respect for the Wild and what they did this season. Boring! We want some trash talk. [Hockey Wilderness]
• The “GREEF Line” might be the key for locking down the Blues. [10K Rinks]

Off the trail...

• The final odds for the 2022 NHL Draft Lottery were released. Thank goodness we don’t need to pay attention to that. [Broad Street Hockey]
• Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper said the series against the Toronto Maple Leafs is going to be “borderline violent,” so the Leafs are kind of choosing to craft their lineup with that in mind. [Sportsnet]