Wild’s Marcus Foligno: ‘I’d rather be in this position than Buffalo’

Not only are the Buffalo Sabres in the midst of a 12-game winless skid, but the club is also catching strays from one of its former skaters.

Among a host of contests Friday in the NHL, the Sabres dropped their 12th straight game in a 6-3 home ice loss to the Atlantic Division rival Toronto Maple Leafs, while due west in Saint Paul, Minn., the Minnesota Wild saw their third consecutive defeat, coming in a 2-1 final versus the Utah Hockey Club.

Despite outshooting Utah 29 to 18, the Wild came up short, with veteran left winger Marcus Foligno telling Joe Smith of the The Athletic postgame, “This is the joy of an 82-game season. You are gonna have some losses where you scratch your head … We are fighting through it. We are in a little bit of a sludge. I mean, I’d rather be in this position than [in] Buffalo. So, you know what, it is not that bad.”

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Foligno skated part of six seasons with his hometown Sabres following his fourth-round selection by the club in the 2009 NHL Draft. Through Foligno’s time in Western New York, the Sabres never qualified for the playoffs, with the club only twice surpassing the 80-point plateau.

Foligno was traded to the Wild in the 2017 offseason, and his success with his new squad has been much more prevalent as Minnesota has made the postseason in five of the past seven years. Meanwhile, the Sabres have not qualified for the playoffs since 2011, a 13-year drought that marks the NHL’s all-time record and is trending toward a 14th straight season.

The Sabres have mustered just three points in their past 12 outings, a stretch that has seen the club post an 0-9-3 showing. On the season, Buffalo sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with an 11-18-4 record and 26 points. The Sabres will look to avoid their 13th straight defeat when they face off against the Boston Bruins on Sunday.