Foligno trashes Lemieux, reveals why he squirted water at him.

There was a very minor incident on Saturday night between Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno and Los Angeles Kings forward Brendan Lemieux, and quite frankly it once again speaks to just how effective Lemieux has become at getting under the skin of his opponents.

The incident occurred roughly midway through the 3rd period of the game and it came off the back of a goal from Lemieux, one that would prove to be the eventual game winner. You always hate to see the opposition score, but in this case it was clear that the fact that it was Lemieux who scored the goal is what set things in motion.

Following his goal Lemieux went out of his way to skate in front of the Wild's bench, a deliberate effort to taunt the players sitting on that bench, and as he was skating by he suddenly ducked his head as if something had been thrown at him. While we weren't sure what had happened at the time, we now know that Marcus Foligno had taken it upon himself to give Lemieux a cold shower with a water bottle as the Kings forward skated past him.

Here it is in real time:

And once again from up close, this time in slow motion:

After the game Foligno was asked why he had acted in that manner following the goal, and this also came off to me as an indication that Lemieux is doing his job out on the ice.

"He scores one goal and then comes by our bench and thinks he’s Sidney Crosby out there," said Foligno. "That stuff bothers ya."

"You've got to forget about that guy. He's an agitator. And not a very good one at that."

I would argue that the fact that Foligno was, as he himself admitted, bothered by the whole thing suggests that Lemieux is in fact a good agitator. The fact that Lemieux's goal and the relatively tame celebration that followed prompted an uncharacteristic response from the Wild veteran also seems to suggest that this is the case. 

If these 2 intend to continue this rivalry they will have to wait some time to renew it, they won't face one another again until the Kings and Wild clash much later in the season on the 10th of April 2022.