For Nick Foligno, 1,000 games played in the NHL is far from just a testament to longevity and sustained individual success.
It’s an achievement born out of sacrifice and commitment by many — with various collective efforts responsible for setting one pro athlete on a path to realizing their dreams.
So when Foligno hops over the boards at Chicago’s United Center on Tuesday night and becomes the 364th NHLer to reach 1,000 career games, the 34-year-old veteran won’t be reflecting all that much on his own 15 years in the pros.
Instead, he’ll be thinking of those that helped him along the way.
"I'm obviously excited about it,” Foligno said of his upcoming achievement. “I think you think about a lot of people along the way. It's a weird one because it's your own milestone. … But I start thinking about all the people, as opposed to what I've done, it's all the people who've gotten me to this point."
Naturally, his father, Mike, stands at the forefront of Nick’s career contemplations and the conduits that sparked his goal of a long tenure in the NHL.
All things considered, Nick’s dad sure offered a pretty solid template for him to follow.
A bruising winger who logged 15 years in the NHL, Mike Foligno was often a thorn in the Bruins' side during the 1980s — burying 355 goals over 1,018 career games (plenty of which were capped off by his signature leaping celly) while also racking up 2,047 penalty minutes.
Even though Nick perhaps isn’t as pugnacious as his elder, he believes that both he and his father are both generally cut from the same cloth when it comes to their playing styles.
"I think we played similar,” Nick said earlier this season when asked about his father. “I think my dad — his records show he’s a little bit better of goal scorer, maybe. But obviously watching your father play and the things that he taught me in the game — I try to instill that in the way I play. Especially the hard-nosed style that he played. I like the physical aspect, I think it brings a better player out of me. … And then, I think the biggest thing probably I take away from my dad, and maybe it's not a skilled characteristic, but it's just the love of the game.
“I love to compete with my teammates, I love to try to get the best out of them. I love to get to know guys on a personal level. And I think that's something he did when he played. So that's probably the one thing I probably took away from him most in talking to guys that have played with him and trying to model that after him.”
Those days spent in an NHL dressing room as a kid might have set Nick on an early course to pro hockey, but Mike's influence on his son goes beyond just inheriting those on-ice genes — and those expected early-morning ferryings to practice.
Mike took an active role in mentoring both Nick and his younger brother Marcus (currently on the Minnesota Wild), serving as their head coach during their time in junior hockey with the Sudbury Wolves. As expected, both Nick and Marcus regularly found themselves under a microscope with their dad at the helm of the OHL franchise. And while that occasionally led to candid discussions after a lackluster performance out on the ice — and a whole lot of awkward car rides home — the Foligno brothers aren’t arguing with the end results.
“I jokingly say that, after games, I would purposely either go with my grandparents or drive a different car home," Nick said of his time playing for his dad in Sudbury. "And he'd always wait until we pulled it in the driveway and then lay into us. So it'd be a really quiet ride home. And then boom, he'd let it go. And then at the end, he'd say, 'But I still love you' and then walk in the house. But I think what it taught me when he coached me was just, there's a standard. And you can't dip below it.
“And I think it helped me enter the NHL at 19 years old. Having a guy like him coach me at a really formable time in my career, it taught me — here's a standard that you have to get to every night to play in the NHL. And I think you always search for that as a player. But I think he made me realize how important that is and I think it's something I pride myself in.”
(Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)
OTTAWA, CANADA - JANUARY 18: Mike Foligno, assistant coach of the Anaheim Ducks poses with his sons Nick Foligno of the Ottawa Senators (left) and Marcus Foligno (right) a prospect with the Buffalo Sabres after game at Scotiabank Place on January 18, 2011 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Those hockey bloodlines and the tutelage under their father have certainly helped both Nick and Marcus in their goal of making it to the NHL. But Nick added that the label that comes with family ties in the NHL can sometimes serve as a double-edged sword, especially during those early years when some might assume that a fresh-faced rookie already knows their way around the league.
The road hasn’t always been easy since making that first jump to the NHL back in October 2007. But from Ottawa to nine years (and a captaincy) in Columbus — to a late-season playoff push in Toronto and now his stint in Boston, Foligno has plenty of be proud of as he begins to reflect on the path he’s charted up in the pros.
“Everyone expects you to just know everything. And I think that's so unfair for players. Because I know how I am as a father of my sons now as they're starting to play hockey and the one thing I don't want to do is over-coach them,” Foligno said. “I want them to fall in love with the game and a lot of times, people think that you're just told all these things and a lot of times, a lot of players just want to get away from it too. So they think this kid grows up in a hockey environment — but a lot of times the dad comes home and doesn't want to talk hockey.
“So I think to get to this level, obviously, there's some tutelage that goes along the way and the dad helps the son, but there's a lot of learning for yourself and I think the biggest thing you probably learn as a child of a player is just how to navigate the room a little bit, because you're coming into it. I remember sitting in a lot of locker rooms and watching how guys would talk — I couldn't repeat anything they said at home — but I think that's what you learn.”
Foligno added: “I'm definitely proud to have a father play in the NHL, but you also want to forge your own path. I think my dad would say he's really proud that my brother and I had both done that and I'm sure that goes for any guy that's played the game. I think to see your son thriving at the level that you got to must be an amazing feeling and it's unique. I don't think you realize it but as I've gotten older and now have kids — I think about my dad sometimes and what he must feel like sometimes seeing both his sons play. I know how special that is and we feel very blessed to have that.”
Now, on Tuesday, Nick will join his father in the 1,000-games-played club — becoming just the second father-son duo to reach that mark after Hall of Famers Bobby and Brett Hull. In just a few years, Marcus (currently at 658 games) could join him and their father in that esteemed club.
Nick remembers the pomp and circumstance that came with his father’s ceremony after surpassing 1,000 games as a member of the Panthers back in 1994. At the time for Nick, the most impressive achievement might have been the various gifts bestowed to his dad as a token of appreciation — especially a commemorative silver stick.
But now, 28 years later and finding himself in the same shoes as his father, Nick knows that it’s the memories over the years that are truly worth their weight in gold.
“We had the silver stick at the house,” Foligno said. “I could barely lift it when I was a kid — now I can finally hold it. So it's special. It's something I think my family and I will cherish and it's a neat milestone. Hopefully, there's more to come, but it's something special.”