Minnesota
Wild deals with hockey flashback
Eriksson Ek was elbowed in the face on Saturday night by the Kraken’s Adam Larsson and has a broken nose. The center is expected to play Tuesday at St. Louis, the second of seven road games in a row that includes reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida, perennially difficult Tampa Bay and always pesky Pittsburgh.
“Those are two big losses,” defenseman Brock Faber said of Eriksson Ek and Spurgeon. “We’re just the next-man-up mentality. Everyone will play a little different role, and we can win hockey games with this team.”
In the Wild’s second game last season, forward Matt Boldy was injured in Toronto and was idle for two weeks.
During their ensuing practice in Montreal, defenseman Alex Goligoski got hurt, and the Wild actually had to face the Canadiens down a player since they didn’t have enough salary cap space to bring up a replacement.
And once they returned home, they didn’t have much time to reset since they had three games in six days before going back on the road.