Apr 6, 2025; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Marcus Foligno (17) skates with the puck against the Dallas Stars in the second period at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images. [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/ebb92300-4ae0-4647-bb6d-01fdae2650e8.jpeg] Apr 6, 2025; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Marcus Foligno (17) skates with the puck against the Dallas Stars in the second period at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images. Jake Middleton Injury Update. ST. PAUL - Ever since Wild head coach John Hynes moved Marcus Foligno to the top line, Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy have been playing better. The move was made on the road against the New Jersey Devils. The trio has played the last four games together. Boldy scored in the first game the line was constructed and was assisted by Foligno. Boldy, 24, has two goals and three assists in four games with the trio. Foligno has one goal, one assist, and 13 hits in his last four games. Rossi has two goals and one assist in four games. Foligno, 33, has never been the prototypical top line winger. He isn't going to flash his hands and beat defenders with moves to set up plays. But, the way he plays the game has opened up ice for Rossi and Boldy. "I said it before, he brings something to our line that’s really big," Rossi said on Foligno. "He’s been really hard on the forecheck, he wins puck battles and he gets the puck. For me and Bolds, it’s really nice to have that for sure." In the four previous games before Foligno was with Rossi, the 23-year-old center had only three shots and zero goals. Since Foligno has been on the top line, Rossi has 12 shots and two goals. For Boldy it has been the same. In his three previous games before the switch he had only four shots. In his three after Boldy has 11 shots, one goal and four points. "I think there's a lot of reasons," Boldy said on why it's working with Foligno on the top line. "He's so big, strong, gets pucks back, wins battles and he's hard to take it from. So when you got someone that is hanging on pucks, keeping pucks alive or getting second and third chances, that's hard to defend. When you got someone as big as him and as strong as him coming down to hit you, you don't want to get hit by him. He keeps pucks alive for us and then we can make some plays. He's a huge part." On Sunday against the Dallas Stars, the trio scored all three goals in the Wild's 3-2 win over a divisional rival. Boldy opened the scoring in the third and followed it up with an assist on Foligno's goal after he passed it to Rossi who found Foligno alone in the slot. “It wasn’t the greatest sauce pass by Marco, so I thought I had to handle it a little bit harder," Foligno said smiling after the game. "So, I decided to cut to the middle. It was good. I think me stopping on it helped maybe push Oettinger back a little bit and I was a little bit worried that maybe my stick got on his pad or something. But it was a good feeling.” Rossi ended up scoring the overtime-winner just 58 seconds into overtime. Boldy picked up a secondary assist on it. We will see how much longer the trio stays together. Kirill Kaprizov has been skating with the team and could return in the Wild's next game on Wednesday. Hynes could keep Foligno with Rossi and Boldy or he could put Kaprizov with Rossi and Boldy. One would think, as well as that top line has played and the chemistry Kaprizov has with his best friend, that Hynes would opt for Kaprizov to play with Mats Zuccarello. The Wild's top-nine lines with Kaprizov back could look like this Foligno-Rossi-Boldy Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello Johansson-Gaudreau-Nyquist Nonetheless, Foligno has enjoyed playing with Rossi and Boldy and the two of them also agree. It has provided the young offensive forwards more time and space to create plays. And how's Foligno handling it? “It’s a lot of minutes," Foligno joked. "It’s good.”
