Saturday night will be a homecoming of sorts for Nick Foligno.
The Bruins forward spent nine years with the Columbus Blue Jackets and was the team’s captain for six of them. Foligno signed with Boston in the offseason after a brief stop with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who acquired him from Columbus.
Foligno will see his former team for the first time when the Blue Jackets host the Bruins at Nationwide Arena, and things felt different this time around for the forward.
“You get on this bus, then you get to a hotel I’ve never stayed at, drove by it 100 times but never stayed at it,” Foligno told reporters Saturday, per team-provided audio. “Just felt really funny.”
Foligno reflected on his memories with Columbus and was happy to be able to say “thank you” to everyone in person.
“I have so many great memories of my time here, just the people that I got to work with,” Foligno said. “So much respect for the organization from the top down with the McConnell family and so on through, (general manager) Jarmo (Kekalainen) and (president John Davidson).
“It’s really nice to come back and just celebrate that with them. I think the way it ended, in a way, was kind of quick with getting traded out of here. So, it’s nice to come back to say thank you to everybody again. I’m enjoying it. My head’s spinning a little bit, obviously, but it’s just great to see everybody.”
Bruins-Blue Jackets is for 7:30 p.m. ET on NESN.
