FOXBORO — Patriots safety Jalen Mills had been conspicuously absent from the locker room since he tweeted a week ago about his lack of snaps in Week 5 against the Saints.

Mills tweeted “10 snaps damn” after ESPN’s Mike Reiss posted defensive snap counts from the loss to the Saints.

10 snaps damn. https://t.co/Yb1rhn09Oy

— Jalen Mills (@greengoblin) October 11, 2023

Mills did appear in the locker room Thursday afternoon.

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“Man, I’m really past that, for real,” Mills told the Herald what he was thinking while tweeting that. “Just sad. But that’s over with.”

Mills doubled his snap count in Sunday’s loss to the Raiders. He let up two catches on three targets for 30 yards on 20 snaps, per PFF.

“Happy,” Mills said when asked about playing more in Week 6.

“Hope so,” he continued when asked if he believes that will continue in the future. “I’m just here to help the team win football teams, man.”

The NFL trade deadline is less than two weeks away. The veteran safety said he’s not thinking about the Oct. 31 deadline.

“Nah, winning’s on my mind,” he said. “That’s all I want to do. I want to win football games. No trade deadline. That’s up to the coaching staff. That’s up to people in the front office. And that’s up to other teams. But my whole focus right now is winning football games.”

Mills did make it clear that he’s happy to be back playing safety. Mills played cornerback in his first two seasons with the Patriots but moved back to the middle of the field this season. With it has come the reduction in playing time, however. Mills played 468 defensive snaps in 10 games last season. He’s been on the field for just 101 snaps this season.

“It’s something that I did my last year in Philly,” Mills said about playing safety. “Then they brought me over here, but I had to move back to corner. But I do like playing safety. …

“Just being able to be aggressive. Being able to do a lot of different things, especially with my skill set. I can play in the slot. I can play nickel. I can play dime. I can play strong safety, I can play free safety. I can blitz. I can play a lot of different coverages. So, I think that’s my biggest thing is my versatility of being able to do all of those things on the back end.”

Whether it’s because they’ve played together on the same line for the past season-plus and play with an identical tenacity, or simply because their last names both begin with a D — and the “doo” sound — Wild fans tend to think of Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime as a, uh, duo.

“We do it, too,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said Thursday.

Hence their roles as Dewey #1 and Dewey #2, and their identical rugby shirts, in the team’s popular Gus Bus ad.

That’s OK with the young forwards.

“Most times,” Dewar acknowledged, “you’ll probably find us hanging out” together.

In terms of North America, they couldn’t come from more different places — Duhaime, 26, from Parkland, Fla., and Dewar, 24, from Manitoba — but they clicked as roommates in their first year together with the Wild’s AHL team in Des Moines.

They played on the same line there, as well.

“Yeah, I mean, anytime you can be with a guy for a while, you kind of build chemistry,” Duhaime said. “I would say that’s a big factor.”

Center Dewar and left wing Duhaime became linked in another way during Tuesday’s 5-2 victory at Montreal when they each scored a short-handed goal in the same penalty kill, 26 seconds apart. They’re the third pair of Minnesota players to do it, joining Wes Walz and Antii Laaksonen (2000) and Ryan Hartman and Sam Steel (2023).

Evason has been pleased with their play this season on a line with Pat Maroon, who joined the team after being acquired in a deal with Tampa Bay this summer. Before Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings, Evason called that trio “arguably our best line” through three games.

“We just kind of came up through the organization together,” Dewar said. “We’ve been playing together for years.”

Star quality

One of the best bits of the Gus Bus spot is Dewar, sitting in the window seat next to Duhaime, breathing on the window and writing in the condensation with his finger.

That was a Dewar improvisation.

“I was trying to think, ‘What would a little kid do?’ ” he said.

The ad, part of the team’s “Not Weird. Wild” campaign, has attracted 1.1 million views on the Wild’s Twitter account and more than 22,000 views on their YouTube channel.

Walker up

Sammy Walker, one of the Wild’s top prospects in Iowa, was set to join the big-league team on Thursday as part of the second line with center Joel Eriksson Ek and left wing Marcus Johansson, slotting into the spot vacated when Matt Boldy was sidelined by an upper-body injury.

The three had never played together before.

“Whoever you’re playing with, you just try to do your best and try to score,” Walker said. “You’re just trying to play hockey.”

The Wild are using the NHL’s emergency personnel rules to add Walker after playing a skater short in Montreal. Walker scored three preseason goals and was one of the last players cut in camp, mostly because the Wild — still being penalized for buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter — didn’t have enough salary cap space.

Evason said Walker was among four candidates to get the callup from Des Moines.

Cap updates

The Wild placed Alex Goligoski on long-term injured reserve on Wednesday, requiring the veteran blue liner to miss at least 10 games and 24 days of the season.

Dakota Mermis had already been called up before Goligoski was hurt, and played well on Tuesday in Montreal, but the LTIR designation offers the Wild salary cap relief if they want to recall an extra defenseman even though the team is technically within $51,000 of the NHL’s $83.5 million cap.

Asked if he anticipates the Wild doing that, Evason said, “Beats the snot out of me.”

That will be up to general manager Bill Guerin. If that’s the case, Evason said, Minnesota and Iowa staffs “will all make a decision together.”

Briefly

Evason said Jared Spurgeon, out since suffering an upper-body injury in an Oct. 5 preseason game, has begun skating. “It’s obviously positive that he’s on the ice,” the coach said. … Boldy has yet to begin skating since being hurt last Saturday in Toronto.

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The Patriots again listed 20 players on their injury report Thursday, but removed running back Rhamondre Stevenson while adding rookie receiver Kayshon Boutte.

Boutte, who’s been a healthy scratch for every game since the season opener, has a new hamstring injury.

The Pats were again down tight end Hunter Henry, outside linebacker Josh Uche and cornerback Jonathan Jones on Thursday. Their availabilities for Sunday’s game against the Bills are now in doubt after missing two straight practices. Left tackle Trent Brown (chest) was upgraded to limited.

In Buffalo, the Bills upgraded quarterback Josh Allen (right shoulder) to full participation.

Both teams’ complete injury reports are below.

NEW ENGLAND

Did not participate

TE Hunter Henry, Ankle

CB Jonathan Jones, Ankle

OL Riley Reiff, Knee

LB Josh Uche, Knee

DL Keion White, Concussion

Limited participation

OT Trent Brown, Chest

DB Jabrill Peppers, Knee

WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, Concussions

C David Andrews, Ankle

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DL Christian Barmore, Knee

DB Cody Davis, Knee

WR Demario Douglas, Concussion

S Kyle Dugger, Foot

DL Trey Flowers, Foot

DL Davon Godchaux, Ankle

DB Jack Jones, Hamstring

OL Mike Onwenu, Ankle

G Cole Strange, Knee

CB Shaun Wade, Shoulder

WR Kayshon Boutte, Hamstring

BUFFALO

Did not participate

RB Damien Harris, Neck / Concussion

TE Quintin Morris, Ankle

DT Ed Oliver, Toe

Limited participation

CB Kaiir Elam, Ankle

DB Cam Lewis, Shoulder

Full participation

QB Josh Allen, Right Shoulder

T Spencer Brown, Knee

DE A.J. Epenesa, Quad

TE Dalton Kincaid, Concussion

TE Dawson Knox, Wrist

DE Greg Rousseau, Foot

CB Dane Jackson, Foot