With Wild's Foligno, apple certainly doesn't fall far from the tree

VANCOUVER --Marcus Foligno knows exactly when the call from his dad is about to arrive.
It's on the drive back to his home in Edina, if he's coming from Xcel Energy Center, typically about an hour after a game.
For the Wild forward, the warning shot typically comes first in a text message.

"'Hey, how you doing?'" is how the text always comes through after a game where Marcus knows he didn't play well. "So he would let you give him the benefit of the doubt, so I can text him back and say, 'yeah, I didn't play well.' He's always watching Nick (older brother, captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets) and I. As much as my dad is my dad, he's a coach too."
When he was growing up, the 15-minute drive home was always predictable. The first 10 minutes were spent, in silence, waiting for the words to come. Then, just as they were almost home, when Marcus would think he was getting away scot free, Mike would provide his commentary on Marcus' performance.
If it was good, he'd tell him.
And if it was bad, well, he had no trouble telling him that either.

"He would start that conversation about five minutes out, then it was 10 more minutes in the garage," Marcus said with a laugh. "And all you could think about the whole time was, 'get me the hell out of here.'"
Marcus looks back on it now as some of the most valuable advice he ever got as a young hockey player.
"My dad's thing was, if you're not scoring, you better be skating. If you're not skating, you better be hitting. If you're not hitting, you better be fighting. And if you're not fighting, you better get the hell off the ice," Marcus said. "His mentality was, you always had to be doing something or bringing something on the ice. That's how he played the game too."
Mike Foligno skated in 1,018 NHL games with Detroit, Buffalo, Toronto and Florida, a career that spanned 15 seasons.
He's best known for his years with the Sabres, where he spent 10 seasons. Eight of those years, Mike scored at least 20 goals. He reached 30 goals twice, and had the best season of his career, a 41-goal, 80-point effort in 1985-86.

Buffalo is also where Marcus was born in August of 1991, a few months after his dad was traded to the Maple Leafs. He spent three years there before wrapping up his career with the Panthers.
Christmas in South Florida as a three-year-old are the only memories Marcus has of Mike's playing career, but his dad spent many of Marcus' formative years drilling into him the kind of player that Folignos were expected to be.
The goals and the offense wouldn't always be there. Stats aren't always things you can control. But effort and toughness certainly is.
During his career, Mike was one of the most beloved teammates in whatever dressing room he was in because he was willing to do whatever it took to help the team win.
If that meant scoring a goal, so be it. Dropping the gloves? That was OK too.
Wild interim head coach Dean Evason learned first hand just how hard Mike Foligno was to play against during his playing days, when the Sabres and Evason's Hartford Whalers would battle one another.
When Evason joined the Wild last season as an assistant coach, he made a b-line for Marcus' locker to tell him just what he thought of playing against his dad.
"He came right over and said, 'I hated playing against your dad,'" Marcus said. "'He played his [butt] off,' and that's what he remembers."
It's the same thing Evason says he sees in Marcus.
"I remember how gritty and how tough [Mike] was, but a very honest player," Evason said. "A lot like his sons, and certainly a lot like [Marcus]."
This week's father's and mentor's trip is a long time coming for Marcus Foligno. Mike was on one earlier this season with Nick, and accompanied Nick on a dad's trip more than a decade ago when Nick was a rookie with the Ottawa Senators.
This is Marcus' first chance to have his dad along with him, and is one of the rare times he has had to spend with Mike during this time of year.
While Marcus has been playing the sport for much of his life, Mike carved out a long post-playing career as a coach, in the NHL, the AHL and the OHL. It's a coaching resume that's brought him from St. John's, Newfoundland to Toronto and Denver, to Hershey, Pennsylvania and Sudbury, Ontario to Southern California to Chicago to New Jersey.
Since the years that Mike coached Marcus with the Sudbury Wolves more than a decade ago, the two have been able to spend little in the way of quality time together during the hockey season. Which is why this trip is something that both Marcus and Mike have had circled on their calendars.

"I've always wanted this," Marcus said. "With these before, everyone is always wondering, 'is your dad coming on this trip,' so it's definitely really exciting to finally say, 'yeah, he's here.'"
Mike arrived in the Twin Cities earlier this week and got some quality family time with his daughter-in-law, Marcus' wife, Natascia, as well as his grand-daughter, Marcus' daughter Olivia.
It's in this setting where Mike says he's seen Marcus grow in recent years. Married in 2016, Marcus became a first-time father in 2018.
It was around that time that Marcus' willingness to be a vocal presence in the Wild's dressing room increased, to the point now where he's one of the most sought-after postgame speakers on the team.
"His whole thought process is different now. He's not waiting for things to happen anymore, he's out there making things happen," Mike said. "He's really taking a leadership role, not just in the game of hockey, but in life in general. He's at a stage where he's really leading by example and he's learned from a lot of great people, but he's also learned that he can set the standard."
From an on-ice perspective, It's a process that has come slowly at times, but not one that is abnormal. Mike, who's been around the game his whole life, knows better than most.
"I think that when he got to junior hockey, maybe that second year, he really started to find his way more and to catch up to the speed of the game and to realize what he can bring to the game," Mike said. "I think his physical presence, he's a terrific hitter out there, he can really change the momentum of a game.
"Now, in the last year or two, he's really started to play in other areas of the game, with the penalty killing and now with the 5-on-5 play, generating scoring opportunities. It's such a process, because to every player, it doesn't always come at one time."
When it comes to the Folignos, however, one thing is certain: the apple --or apples -- haven't fallen far from the tree.
"Just watching their games, and how hard and physical, accountable and how they play the game the right way," Evason said. "Honest, straight-up, but nitty-gritty. That's fun to watch."
All photos courtesy of Marcus Foligno