Liam Foudy said he never focused on the number, but for the first 35 games of last season, he had to be wondering – what do I have to do to buy a goal?
The 2018 first-round pick of the Blue Jackets scored in the 2020 playoff bubble, but didn’t have a regular-season tally in his career, a stretch of 62 games over four seasons without a goal. Finally, though, he got on the board Feb. 18 in a win at Dallas when he crashed the net and scored on a rebound.
It seemed to lift a weight off the center/wing, as the 23-year-old scored seven times in the last 27 games. He believes he took the momentum into the offseason, and he was excited to hit the gym after he had to spend all of last summer rehabbing from shoulder surgery that ended his 2021-22 season a few months early.
BlueJackets.com talked with Foudy about the end of last year, training with his brother Jean-Luc in the offseason, and spending summer in Ontario after a practice during the first week of training camp. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
What did the end of last season do for you? Were you able to breathe a little bit going into summer and feel like you established yourself in some ways?
“Yeah, that was huge. Obviously it was unfortunate we had a lot of injuries, but a lot of guys got to improve their role a little bit and play a lot more. Having that for me the last quarter, the last half (of the season), I was able to find my game again. Especially with not playing hockey the whole year before with my surgery and at the start of the year being in and out of the lineup, it’s tough to find your game. And then having that consistency near the end helped out a lot and gave me a lot of confidence going into the summer and going into this camp.”
With how much time you missed, it's hard to get back and get your legs underneath you, especially when you’re struggling a bit to produce. Once you got into a rhythm, how much did that help?
“That’s massive. Barely playing hockey, a lot of people don’t understand, you can’t really go on the ice because you can’t risk falling on your shoulder. There’s a lot of things you can’t do, and you kind of lose that touch a little bit. Coming back in, you go through a tough training camp, and being in and out of the lineup, it’s tough to find a groove and stay consistent with it. It’s tough. You can practice all you want, but it’s not game touches. Having that near the end of the year and not coming out of the lineup and having a bigger role on this team was huge for me.”
You go into any summer, you want to keep getting better. What was the big focus for you this offseason?
“It was weird, because like I said, after the shoulder surgery, I didn’t really have an offseason (last year). I was rehabbing my shoulder the whole time. I didn’t have time to do a lot of things. This summer, I was able to go on the ice a lot more and work on all parts of my game, work on finishing a lot, and then obviously just trying to improve my speed as much as I can with being on the ice and in the gym and having the opportunity to do that. We had a long offseason, unfortunately, but I had a lot of time to work on a lot of things, so that was nice.”
Do you feel there is even more to your game, that you’ve just scratched the surface now?
“Yeah. I haven’t played too many hockey games lately. Having that near the end and being able to build on my game, I think I’m slowly becoming the player I can be. I have a lot of confidence coming off the end of last season and hopefully can have a good year this year.”
Your brother Jean-Luc debuted with the Avalanche last year. Do you train with him in the offseason?
“We train a lot together. He’s got an injury right now, so we couldn’t do as much as usual, but we try to do everything together. We have a third guy, Jack McBain in Arizona, the three of us try to do everything together. We hang out a little too much probably.”
Is it cool having someone like Jean-Luc that you can go through this with? You’ve both had injuries, ups and downs, you’re both young players trying to make it, so I imagine it’s nice having your brother there.
“It’s huge. We can help each other out with anything we got. Obviously the compete level we have in the summer, we always want to beat each other. Whether it’s training off the ice or on the ice, we do everything together. It’s a big benefit to have someone who has high skill like him and can really push you.”
You’re from the Toronto area. What’s it like when you get to spend summer at home? I imagine it’s a bit better than winter in Ontario.
“It’s really nice being at home with my brother and doing a lot with him, and I have a bunch of friends back home. We go to the cottages a lot. We watched a lot of the Blue Jays. Just try to enjoy the city and go out and relax.”
What is cottage country like in Ontario, for those of us who are in Ohio and never had a chance to go?
“(Ours is) up in Muskoka, probably like two and a half hours, two hours north of Toronto. A lot of people go up there. There’s a lot of nice lakes. It’s really peaceful. People love it. It’s kind of like Traverse City on the lake there. Some people have beaches. It’s mostly just living on the docks and relaxing. I like to do a lot of fishing. Whenever we go up there, we have a lot of fun.”
Did you catch anything big this summer?
“Nothing crazy big. I usually go fishing when I go up to my grandparents’ in a small town, Verner, that’s a little further north. That’s like a little French town. We try to do a little fishing when we go up there."
People probably don’t realize, you speak French because of your mom (former Canadian Olympic sprinter France Gareau).
“My mom speaks French to us all the time at home. We usually answer in English, but a lot of people don’t know because I don’t have the French name like my brother. She named him. My dad (Sean, a former CFL player) named me, so that’s why I have an Irish name. You get it when you hear Jean-Luc, but people don’t really expect that out of me. It’s a good thing to have.”
