When Nick Foligno arrived in Ottawa as a rookie for the 2007-08 season, he had just missed out on the fun of the Sens’ Stanley Cup Final appearance a few months earlier. What he also missed was getting a chance to be teammates with defenceman Zdeno Chara, who left the Senators in free agency the year before the Sens’ Cup run.
It’s believed that Chara lost his zest for being a Senator when his friend, teammate, and countryman Marion Hossa was treated poorly by the organization. Hossa signed a long-term contract in good faith and then was traded almost immediately to the sad sack Atlanta Thrashers.
In a parallel universe, it wouldn’t have taken much for Foligno and Chara to become long-time teammates and fast friends in Ottawa. But in this universe, for some misguided reason, Foligno says he always wanted to fight Chara.
Tale of the Tape of Two Former Senators
Chara: Six-foot-nine, 250 pounds, the biggest player in NHL history.
Foligno: Six feet, 210 pounds.
Difference: Nine inches and 40 pounds, not to mention an equally big mismatch in the reach department.
Make no mistake, Foligno is tough. He can handle himself in a fight. But when he finally got the chance for his long-awaited bout with Chara, the common sense gene apparently kicked in.
“I’ve always wanted to fight Z,” Foligno said this week on the Dropping the Gloves Podcast with John Scott. “Until the moment happened where we’re cross-checking in front of the net and we’re swearing at each other. And he gives me the ‘let’s go.’
“I don’t back down from anything, but a voice in my head was like, ‘go to the bench, go to the bench.’ And I turned and skated away. I was like, “That was your moment, you idiot!” I couldn’t do it. And I think that’s why I’m still playing today. That’s why I’m alive.
“I always said that to myself, ‘I want to fight that guy one day.’ Because I watched a couple of guys fight him and I’m like, “I just want to see how strong he is.” I’m good. I know how strong he is. I’m good. I’m good.
“That’s the one time I’ve ever wussed out in a fight.”
Foligno spent five seasons with the Senators until being traded straight up for Columbus defenceman Marc Methot in 2012. Since the trade, Foligno has played 12 seasons in the league and just signed up for two more in Chicago to continue mentoring the Hawks’ young stars.
Maybe none of that would ever have happened for Nick Foligno if he’d made a different (and terrible) decision against the big man that fateful night.
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