Nick Foligno gets famous: From unknown NHLer to All-Star Game captain
COLUMBUS — The last time the NHL staged an All-Star Game, few knew Nick Foligno. It was three years ago in Ottawa, and he was a Senator. But he wasn’t an all-star, let alone an all-star captain on center stage in the host city. He wore the No. 71 sweater, but he could have passed for a guy trying to sell No. 71 sweaters at a sporting goods store.
Actually, a week after the All-Star Game, Foligno spent an hour undercover as “Frank” at a SportChek near the arena. To be Frank, it was humbling. A video on the Sens’ website shows him in a black T-shirt, posing as an employee, blending in all too well.
“You know what would go really great with those skates?” Frank asks a girl trying on a pair. “A Sens jersey.”
Frank smiles. She smiles.
“And probably, like ...”
He looks up and nods. She looks up and nods.
“A Foligno Sens jersey,” he says, making eye contact, “just because he’s my favorite player.”
He walks over to the sweaters, points out they’re discounted and …
No recognition. No sale.
“I tried,” he says. “Nothing.”
Of course, Frank was wearing a little microphone on his collar, and he was being followed by a camera. You’d think that would have tipped off people that something was up. Maybe it did. Maybe the video exaggerates his anonymity.
“We thought you were this guy,” says a woman standing next to her husband, pointing at the “FOLIGNO” nameplate on a sweater.
“Hmm,” Frank says. “No. I wish.”
“You look like him,”
“I wish I was that guy.”
But a father and son walk right past him, and a couple of non-hockey fans have no clue who he is, and he ostensibly sells only one sweater. One. He jokes that SportChek probably doesn’t want him back. The point is, he’s Nick Foligno, not Daniel Alfredsson. He knows it, and he isn’t afraid to have fun with it.
* * * * *
Now the NHL is staging the All-Star Game again. It’s Sunday in Columbus, and Foligno is a Blue Jacket. Not only is he an all-star, he’s an all-star captain on center stage in the host city. He’ll wear a No. 71 all-star sweater, and it will be available at the merchandise stands.
If you can’t believe it, well, neither can he.
Foligno was in a hotel room in Toronto earlier this month, resting before a game against the Maple Leafs, when he was summoned to the room of John Davidson, the team’s president of hockey operations.
“I was like, ‘Oh, [bleep],’ ” Foligno said.
Foligno wasn’t in trouble. Davidson just wanted to tell him personally he had made his first All-Star Game.
“I never would have thought that going into the year,” Foligno said. “It really wasn’t in my head. That’s not something I was thinking about. We talked about it a little bit, but you never know how those things are going to go.”
And to be named a captain later? Opposite the Chicago Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews?
“Just blew me away,” Foligno said.
When the NHL went to this format, the idea was to revitalize the All-Star Game by having captains pick teams – like kids on a pond in a romantic sense, like fans in fantasy sports in a modern sense. Maybe there would be a little more buzz and intensity with teammates facing each other, captains picking one guy over another, et cetera.
The first time, it was in Raleigh and it was the Carolina Hurricanes’ Eric Staal against the Detroit Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom – the host city’s captain against a legend. The next time, it was in Ottawa, and it was Alfredsson against the Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara – the host city’s captain against a legend.
This time, the host city had no captain.
NHL executive Colin Campbell called Davidson for his input. The league’s hockey operations department had to make a decision.
The NHL could have ignored the Blue Jackets. But that wouldn’t have been right – especially after Columbus lost the 2013 All-Star Game to a lockout and couldn’t have it back last season because of the Sochi Olympics.
The league could have named Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky a captain. But he’s a goaltender, and goaltenders traditionally aren’t captains. And even though his English has improved markedly, Bobrovsky’s first language is Russian. The captains pick the teams on a live TV show.
The league could have named Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen a captain. But he’s only 22 years old, and let’s face it: He just went through a bitter contract dispute with Columbus, and as good as he has been, his coaches are still trying to coax more out of his considerable talent.
That left Foligno.
“They just kind of told me, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ ” Foligno said. “My first thought was, ‘Wow, that’s a lot more pressure now.’ I was already nervous about being in the game.”
Foligno, 27, has had a breakout season. He personifies the Blue Jackets’ identity – hard-working, humble, anonymous even. And as the Senators’ video showed, he has the personality for TV, right?
“He’s got a face for radio, so I don’t know if he’s going to be good on TV,” joked teammate James Wisniewski. “I told him that the ratings are going to go down. Once people see him on TV, they’re going to want to turn it off.”
* * * * *
Foligno is a great story. He is a son of Mike Foligno, who played 15 seasons in the NHL for Detroit, Buffalo, Toronto and Florida. He was drafted in the first round in 2006. After four-and-a-half seasons with the Senators, he was traded to the Blue Jackets. He helps charities that battle cancer and cystic fibrosis. He’s famous for giving Bobrovsky a big hug after every Columbus win.
Fifteen months ago, Foligno and his wife, Janelle, had a daughter, Milana. He doesn’t want to make a big deal of it, but their daughter was born with a congenital heart defect. Her outlook was uncertain early. She had to have surgery. She runs around the house now.
“Obviously she was a big motivating factor in my life because of everything she battled through at such a young age,” Foligno said. “So I think she’s made me a better person, a better player. It’s amazing once you become a dad how much things change in your life.”
Foligno took the Blue Jackets to the highest point in their history April 23. Between the third period and overtime against the Pittsburgh Penguins, he told his teammates he would score the winner – and then did it 2:49 into OT, giving the franchise its first and only home playoff victory.
The Blue Jackets challenged Foligno to take a bigger role, and early this season he had to make more of an impact because of an injury epidemic. He did everything – fighting, hitting, grinding, scoring. He killed penalties. He carried the power play. He volunteered to move from wing to center for a while even though he hadn’t played in the middle since junior.
He signed a six-year, $33 million contract extension Dec. 31. He entered Wednesday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets with 18 goals, 24 assists and 42 points, on pace for 33 goals, 45 assists and 78 points. His career highs: 18 goals, 32 assists, 47 points.
“When you go through the adversity that we’ve had to deal with, you see how people deal with it as players,” Davidson said. “Nick was good for us from Day 1 all the way through. There was time there when we had 11 players out, and it was very hard, and he kept playing hard. He kept playing hard every single game. He earned everything he’s gotten.”
Whatever happens in the future – whether he keeps producing like this or not, whether he makes another All-Star Game or not – this is his moment. He will try to sell the NHL, as himself. He’s gone from “Frank” to Team Foligno.
Who doesn’t wish he was that guy?
“I’m really honored,” he said. “I’m touched that they thought of me in that light. I’m going to have a lot of fun with it. I’m not going to take it too seriously. Obviously it’s a great event, and there’s so many guys worthy of the ‘C.’ For them to recognize me in my home city, it’s pretty special to me.”
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