Joel Eriksson Ek returns just in time to be a hero as Wild make NHL playoffs

When he watched the Wild while on the mend, Joel Eriksson Ek didn’t scream at the TV or squirm with nerves.

He just sat there.

“You can’t really control anything,” he said. “Just try to learn, get the time to maybe just watch different things that you maybe think about in a game.”

Now that the lower-body injury that sidelined him for six weeks has healed and Eriksson Ek feels like himself again, the center is no longer an idle onlooker.

In fact, no one on the Wild will have more on their plate when their first-round playoff series vs. the Vegas Golden Knights starts Sunday night, and that’s right up Eriksson Ek’s alley.

“He has a lot of responsibility and a big role,” coach John Hynes said. “But that’s who he is. He’s shown that he thrives in those environments.”

This is nothing new for Eriksson Ek, the third longest-tenured player on the Wild going into his seventh postseason.

In the regular season, he centers the top line, stands in front of the net on the power play, kills penalties and hovers over the faceoff dot. All those contributions get magnified in a best-of-seven series, especially if the 6-foot-3, 207-pound Eriksson Ek goes head-to-head against Vegas’ best player, Jack Eichel.

But the way Eriksson Ek plays, the Golden Knights will have to be mindful of him and his linemates: Although he broke into the NHL as a defensive center after the Wild drafted him during the first round in 2015, Eriksson Ek has climbed the depth chart to become their two-way force because of how much his offensive game has grown.

He was a 30-goal scorer last season and was near or had more than 20 goals the three seasons before that. Eriksson Ek’s goal-per-game pace (which is third-best on the Wild) would have translated to another 20-goal campaign had he suited up more, but injury limited him to only 46 games and he finished with 14 goals and 15 assists.

Factor in his stinginess at 5-on-5, which was so sharp and on par with the NHL’s elite defensive forwards, and the first line vs. first line matchup could be a handful for both Vegas and the Wild — particularly if Eriksson Ek and wingers Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy rediscover the chemistry they had in the second half of last season when they were one of the most dominating trios in hockey.

“That’s what makes Ekky a hard player to play against,” Hynes said. “Now, it’s not just all him, but it’d have to be his linemates having that same mentality. But, yes, I think when you’re a player that plays against top players, when you’re on offense, you don’t want to be defending. But his style of game and the way that he plays with Bolds and Kirill, when they are on offense or in the offensive zone, all three of them have the ability to make another team have to defend and check.

“But all three are also responsible when they’re called upon to defend rush defense coming into our own end. Those guys can handle that.”

If the impact Eriksson Ek, 28, had in his four-game return from injury carries over into the playoffs, he’ll be a challenge to contain.

How did he top scoring four times in his first game back to help the Wild get closer to securing a playoff spot with an 8-7 overtime victory over the Sharks on April 9? By delivering the clincher. Eriksson Ek’s putback of his own rebound with 20 seconds left in the third period of Tuesday’s regular-season finale helped the Wild tie the Ducks and gave the Wild the point they needed to secure the first wild card in the Western Conference and a rematch of the 2021 series that Vegas won in seven games.

“Oh, boy,” was Eriksson Ek’s first thought after Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal denied his initial try.

But after Eriksson Ek buried the do-over (en route to 3-2 comeback in overtime for the Wild), he was overjoyed.

“It’s fun,” said Eriksson Ek, who also has an overtime game-winner vs. then-Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from that 2021 playoff series among his highlights. “Everybody at the rink knew that was a big goal. Yeah, excitement and just happy.”

Back in action, Eriksson Ek isn’t powerless anymore.

He’s the opposite.

“You want pressure,” he said. “That’s something you’ve earned, to have that pressure on you. All of us here have had pressure the whole year. So, looking forward to playing those games.”