ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 In a lot of ways, the Minnesota Wild were cooked before their second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche even started, losing arguably their two best defensive players, center Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin.<\/p>\n
Friday, a day that could have been the morning of Game 6 of the series, Eriksson Ek and Brodin were two of several players who talked after their exit meetings with coach John Hynes. It was the first time they had spoken publicly since they suffered what turned into season-ending injuries in the first round.<\/p>\n
Eriksson Ek broke a bone in the heel of his right foot, while Brodin fractured the first metatarsal \u2014 the bone that connects the foot to the big toe \u2014 in his right foot and underwent surgery a day later to insert a plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to play,\u201d Eriksson Ek said. \u201cJust I couldn\u2019t do it. It was too painful to skate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eriksson Ek said he couldn\u2019t plant his foot on the ice. What bothers him most is the way he got hurt. He just lost his edge in Game 6 on his own and crashed foot-first into the side wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cLot of emotions, watching,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, everyone says, it\u2019s a lot worse to sit on the side and watch than playing the games. Yeah, it was hard. Weird injury. \u2026 It just adds, I think, even more frustration to the way you get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brodin has dealt with a lot of injuries over the years, but none as frustrating as this season, which cost the veteran the chance to play for Sweden in the Olympics, then the Wild\u2019s series-deciding first-round game against the Dallas Stars and the entire second round against the Avalanche.<\/p>\n
Brodin, who blocked Mikko Rantanen\u2019s shot in Game 5 early in the second period, initially thought he was fine, he said Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was getting ready for my next shift,\u201d he said. \u201cI was trying to jump over the boards, and I pushed on that leg, and, yeah, it was not a good feeling. Then I knew something was bad, and then they did X-rays and stuff, and, yeah, it\u2019s really tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awful to not play in the playoffs. Best time of the year. Not be out there, try to help the team win. So it\u2019s really frustrating year for me with that stuff. Yeah, not a good ending.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brodin was hopeful to come back near the end of the conference final, if the Wild had made it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I\u2019m not that far away from being good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eriksson Ek and Brodin watched Games 3 and 4 together from the press box and Games 1, 2 and 5 together in Minneapolis, where they live in the same building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the guys go on the road, too, and you stay home, it\u2019s a terrible feeling watching the games,\u201d Brodin said. \u201cYou\u2019re, like, more nervous watching than playing for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brodin, 32, who has two years left on a contract that pays him $6 million annually, continues to be an oft-injured player, missing 94 regular-season games the past four years (23.5 per season), including an upper-body injury that cost him the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying in the Olympics was a dream for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was really hard, that one for me. But, yeah, it\u2019s tough both. It\u2019s a frustrating year. We\u2019ve gotta stay positive and come back stronger next year, have a good summer now, train good, and then come back here next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every injury is tough, but you can\u2019t do much about that blocked shot there. \u2026 I wasn\u2019t even trying to block it. But, yeah, it happens. You just stay positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin is expected to address Eriksson Ek and Brodin\u2019s injuries Monday during his availability with Hynes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 In a lot of ways, the Minnesota Wild were cooked before their second-round series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-645244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}