Joel Eriksson Ek was already an unmistakable presence on the ice for the havoc he tends to create in front of the net, but now he’ll stand out for a different reason: his new headgear. The veteran center rejoined the Wild with a full-face shield attached to his helmet after having surgery on the broken nose he suffered last Saturday against Seattle. “It’s a little different,” Eriksson Ek said Thursday after the Wild practiced at the Recreation Outdoor Center in St.
Louis Park. “Just tried to stay out there a little bit extra, maybe get used to seeing through it. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ll be wearing it.
Probably a few weeks at least.” The Wild’s top center was injured in the second period of the team’s 5-4 shootout loss at Xcel Energy Center when he took an elbow to the face from the Kraken’s Adam Larsson, what Eriksson Ek called a hockey play. Larsson wasn’t penalized, and Eriksson Ek actually returned for one shift in the third period wearing a shield.
But it was tough for him to breathe, and Eriksson Ek struggled to see because of how much blood was filling the bubble. On Monday morning, he went for surgery (“I saw the pictures of his nose right after the surgery. It didn’t look good,” coach John Hynes said) but the swelling has gone down and Eriksson Ek is progressing.
“First couple days after surgery, it was really sore,” he said. “But it’s getting better now.” While on the mend, Eriksson Ek tried not to move much — “Th.
