Joel Eriksson Ek tried to play through broken fibula
No one will ever know how the Minnesota Wild would've fared if Joel Eriksson Ek didn't miss all but 19 seconds of the playoff series against the Dallas Stars, but the standout two-way center's toughness will never be questioned after he revealed that he tried to play through a broken leg.
Eriksson Ek was struck in his lower leg by a puck in Minnesota's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 6. The powerful shot fractured his fibula and knocked him out for two weeks before he mustered up enough strength to give it a go in Game 3 against the Stars. But 19 seconds into his first shift of the game he realized the injury was too severe to play through.
"I was skating for I don't know how many days before," Eriksson Ek said during the Wild's exit interviews on Monday. "I felt good, and then just first shift, yeah, it didn't hold up."
The loss of Eriksson Ek was evident in all aspects of the game, but none more so than on Minnesota's penalty kill. Dallas scored nine power-play goals in the series, which ended with a 4-1 thumping in St. Paul in Game 6.
"It is just so hard to sit and just watch. I think that's harder than actually being out there. Being with the guys, that's what you want to do. You want to be out there to try to do your best to help the team," Eriksson Ek said. "It sucks. You play a whole season and then right before playoffs you get hurt."
Eriksson Ek is expected to be 100% healthy for the 2023-24 season.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.