Judd's Hockey Show - A Minnesota Wild Podcast
Joel Eriksson Ek leaves injured in Minnesota Wild's OT win over Seattle Kraken
09 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hockey. Yeah. My favorite. It's Judd's Hockey Show. It's Judd's Hockey Show. Judd and AJ, plenty to talk about. Last night's overtime victory over the Seattle Kraken. Some good, some bad. A road trip over. But before we do that, this age of very historical JHS today, because it's our last JHS on this particular Score North YouTube channel.
Why don't you tell the people starting Monday where they can find us and follow along?
yeah for the kind of half half attentive listeners there this is not the last jhs ever just the last one that's going to be posted on the score north youtube channel because on monday january 12th judd's hockey show is moving to guess where the judd's hockey show official youtube channel if you haven't subscribed yet go on to youtube um if you're listening to this open it up the app and in search otherwise if you're watching this just
either check the description or search Judd's Hockey Show in that search bar, hit subscribe, so that on Monday when we post that show right away in the morning, you are getting that right on your feed and you don't miss a second, don't miss an episode. So Judd's Hockey Show is moving to the brand new Judd's Hockey Show YouTube channel starting on Monday, January 12th. So please join us there.
It's going to be great fun. It's going to be happening. It's going to be hip, as the kids like to say, or at least the kids did say at one time. I'm not sure if hip is still a word in the lexicon, but anyway... All right, let's get right to it. So the Wild wins in overtime last night on a beautiful sauce pass from Kirill Kaprizov to Mats Zuccarello.
Yes, we're going to get to the Jules Eriksson... injury um but let's start with the road trip age which i think you said going in if they get what 10 points it would be a success i think so yeah sure enough four wins one regulation loss a shootout loss and an o and or two shootout losses so four one and two ten points I think you got to come away from this calling it an overwhelming success.
And the wild now, again, at least in points tied for second in the league and the central division with the Dallas stars. I think you got to be, if you're the wild flying home today, you have to be very, very pleased with what was, I think it was tied for the longest road trip in team history. I think it was the longest as far as days go, what the, it started December like 27th in Winnipeg.
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Chapter 2: What were the highlights of the Minnesota Wild's OT win over the Seattle Kraken?
I think that was very evident in the second game against L.A. where they looked sluggish. They didn't start the game well. And even last night, there was times where it's like you could tell they're kind of they're yearning for home. Well, you're finally back, and now I expect rested legs and rejuvenated line rushes. But considering the results, it's hard to argue that this would be a failure.
You went to overtime a couple times. You lost in a shootout a couple times. And...
much as i would have liked that extra point or two um the 10 points you get that is that is a success for me i'm not going to move the bar at all that's uh that's a pretty good showing by them especially after last night and i know we're going to touch on this losing one of your top centers yeah in fact let's get to that second period and i don't know i don't think there was a replay and i certainly didn't see this on tv
But in the second period, it was actually for me, it was late in the second period. Matt Boldy took a couple of face-offs, and I'm like, that's unique. That's interesting. And what they were doing was it was late in the period. It was an offensive zone face-off, and they were trying to put as much firepower on the ice as possible.
Now, usually that would have been Erickson X subbing for Yurov to try to win the face-off. But it turns out, according to The Athletic, that ā Erikssonek was hurt with eight minutes left in the second period. John Hines said in his postgame he got intertwined with a player near the bench on a freak play. He is classified as day-to-day.
And then the story says, although he said, I'm fine, as he limped out of the arena, it was visible that under his pants he was wearing a brace on his right leg. Uh, okay. So they say day to day, it means nothing. Cause they always like, they always try and empty words say this exactly right. Empty words.
Um, until I see more, a definite concern just because if nothing else, Eric's neck gets hurt a lot. And, and, but I always feel like unless he's really hurt, he doesn't leave. Like the dude tried to play through a broken leg in the playoffs. It didn't work at all, but he tried. So this is not a guy who you're like, oh man, here we go again.
He gets hurt a lot, but usually only leaves games or is out when he is legit hurt. Until we know more... This is a, in my opinion, big cause for concern because he's your best center. That's a position at which you don't have a ton of depth. That line with Johansson and Boldy has been instrumental. It's been one of the few lines that I don't think they've touched in a month plus.
So until I hear more or forget that. Because here doesn't matter. Until I see more. Until I see him back, I am definitely concerned. And I wonder if this does increase potentially the urgency to try and make that trade for a center before the Olympic break. And most importantly, before we go into the roster freeze where trades can't be made before the games start in the Olympics.
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Chapter 3: Was the Wild's recent road trip considered a success?
And Hines looked at me like I had four heads and said, yeah, we fully expect him. And then, of course, he came back. He supposedly got hurt. So he played a game against the Red Wings after the Four Nations. He supposedly got hurt in practice. I'm sure he did, but I'm sure he was hurt.
hurt already and it didn't help to play in a highly competitive tournament not to mention now if if you are hurt and you go to the olympics you're going to be on an eight hour flight i think which as we all know flying is not exactly good for those who are injured so you yeah there is no now now there's there's going to be major debate if if what you just said would be allowed which is hey you just can't go or or him saying i should not go um but i do think that that is going to be far more of an
issue because common sense says you just don't go. Yeah. I mean, it's an exhibition. You don't go like, it's a fun exhibition, but it's an exhibition as far as your season is concerned.
And God, it's not like he hasn't represented like, this isn't like, um, he's going to get the one chance to ever throw on the Jersey for Sweden again in his life.
Yeah. I mean, And there's just no reason for anyone who's hurt in the midst of their season, especially if they're important to their team. There's no compelling case to say, I'm going to go to a tournament that means nothing to my team. And I know that the comeback is it's my country.
But let me remind you, this is a league in which we are told that what's on the jersey, what's on the front of the jersey, nothing matters more. Like, if we're going to go down a path of, well, screw it, you know what? I'm going to go play for my country, and then I'm going to do this and that. Then let's get players to really say, you know what?
I'm going after 50 goals, and I don't care what Joe in the next locker thinks, okay? This is about me. So if you go, it's about you. And this is about, in my opinion, the wild and a real potential chance to make a Stanley Cup run. And you need everybody. I mean, you cannot have, you know, Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Zuccarello, Jule Erikssonak. We can go down a list of guys. Quinn Hughes.
If you lose them... Bye bye. So like you, it's going to be it would be very difficult to win to be Dallas and Colorado with a full roster of everybody as healthy as they can be. So if that's the case, you know, be damn near impossible to win if you don't have one of those guys. So I'm I'm with you completely.
And the thing about it, too, is like it's a it's a three month break. Or, excuse me, three-week break. Three weeks. That would do wonders for a guy like him, especially just for this team. I'm sure there are guys currently battling some sort of nagging injury or something that isn't 100% that they're playing through every night.
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Chapter 4: What impact does Joel Eriksson Ek's injury have on the team?
You guarantee yourself two points, but there, there are still issues. So I think the, the tweak we talked about with Jesse is, you might just have to do something. You, I think you got to try something and whether that ruffles feathers or not shouldn't matter. Clearly the, the sample size, if you look, you draw the fence of the data set, it's just not working right now.
There, there, there is an issue. So something has to change. And you see this, John Hines has juggled lines, but also this, you have to not be afraid to juggle the special teams. Power play is important. Matt Zuccarello, I'm going to take you off, and that's where you're going to put Brock Faber. Not Brock Faber on the wing, but you're going to spread that out because I can't have this.
I mean, this wasn't on the power play, but it was the pass right on top of the doormat.
Yeah, that Grubauer just picked off and smothered.
It's stuff like that where... You just have to shoot it. If Matt Zuccarello changed, I just don't expect him to is the problem. If he decided I'm going to start shooting more, then leave him. But they're forcing this extra pass far too often. And as good as it looks, and I love the display of chemistry, you need to be a little selfish at times on the power play.
and the other thing too and this is a simple uh potential fix with the current personnel on the power play too i want quinn hughes to shoot way more he has a he has a among his uh god-given gifts because he's just phenomenal i mean again last night he's making plays he makes such hard plays look so simple it's despicable it's so funny but anyway uh his ability to get the puck through traffic
I want him to shoot more. Like, they're looking for this perfect goal, and it's like, that's not the goal here. The goal is to score. So, and Quinn Hughes has, if you look at, I don't know if this is tracked or not, but if you look at, like, shots from the upper portion of the zone, like the points, the very high slot, I guess.
But anyway, Quinn Hughes' ability to get those pucks through is phenomenal, and that creates rebounds, and that's what I want. So, like, that's a simple thing. It's always, they're trying to, if It always feels like they're trying to set up that play where it's high to low, you know, maybe cross ice then to... And it's just like, this is not going to consistently work.
And to your point, in the playoffs too, nobody gives a damn if it's a pretty goal or not. So I would just say, for one thing, have Quinn Hughes be...
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