Foligno: L'Heureux will have 'price to pay' for injuring Spurgeon
Minnesota Wild veteran Marcus Foligno hasn't forgotten about what Nashville Predators forward Zachary L'Heureux did to his captain on New Year's Eve.
L'Heureux was handed a match penalty and eventually suspended three games for slew-footing Jared Spurgeon during Minnesota's game against Nashville on Dec. 31. Spurgeon hasn't played since due to a lower-body injury suffered on the play.
The two teams will meet again Saturday in Nashville for the first time since the incident. Foligno hinted that there could be retribution.
"When you see a guy cheap-shotted, that stuff needs to be answered for," Foligno said, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo and Joe Smith. "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.
"They've got a lot of guys on Nashville that understand the code, and the young kid doesn't understand. It's frustrating. There will be a price to pay for that game. I'm sure he'll have to answer to someone."
Wild forward Yakov Trenin tried to fight L'Heureux immediately after the play, but L'Heureux declined.
L'Heureux was suspended nine times during his QMJHL career - including once for 10 games when he jammed his stick between panes of glass to jab a fan - and twice in the AHL. However, the NHL Department of Player Safety doesn't take incidents from others leagues into account when handing out suspensions. This was L'Heureux first offense as an NHLer.
Still, Foligno believes three games was too light.
"Slew-footing in a lot of sports is a shitty play," Foligno said. "I don't know, maybe in UFC you could do it. 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.
"He shouldn't be able to just walk out of Xcel (Energy Center) that night because (Spurgeon) wasn't able to."
Foligno has already fought six times this season. L'Heureux has dropped the gloves once so far in his rookie campaign, coincidentally in the same game against the Wild versus Ben Jones prior to his ejection.