Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno signaled potential consequences for Nashville Predators rookie Zachary L’Heureux ahead of Saturday’s matchup in Nashville.
The teams meet for the first time since L’Heureux’s slew-foot on Wild captain Jared Spurgeon during their Dec. 31 game. The incident resulted in a match penalty and three-game suspension for L’Heureux. Spurgeon hasn’t returned to play since suffering a lower-body injury on the play.
“When you see a guy cheap-shotted, that stuff needs to be answered for,” Foligno told The Athletic. “The L’Heureux thing is blatant, trying to hurt a guy. We got into the boards so many times with D-men. You just guide them in. It’s not the ’80s or ’90s where you can get away with anything on the forecheck.”
Wild forward Yakov Trenin attempted to engage L’Heureux immediately after the incident, but the Predators rookie declined to fight.
L’Heureux’s disciplinary history includes:
- Nine suspensions in the QMJHL
- Two suspensions in the AHL
- A 10-game ban for jabbing a fan with his stick through arena glass
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety considers only NHL incidents when determining suspension length.
“Slew-footing in a lot of sports is a shitty play,” Foligno said. “When a guy crosses the line in that sense, something has to be taken in measures. Yeah, he got suspended, but we lost (Spurgeon). It’s a dirty play. It should be more games.”
Foligno has recorded six fights this season. L’Heureux’s only NHL fight came against Ben Jones in the same Dec. 31 game, before his ejection.
The teams face off Saturday at 8 p.m. ET at Bridgestone Arena.
