The Minnesota Wild’s in-game entertainment folks make sure that no matter what happens on the ice, home games are quite a spectacle of music and light. But after nearly a month, Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek had done more than enough of watching the show.

On Sunday, Eriksson Ek returned to the Wild lineup after missing the previous 11 games with a lower-body injury.

“It’s never fun being injured. So yeah, happy to be back for sure,” said Eriksson Ek, following the team’s morning skate at TRIA Rink.

During a Dec. 3 home win over Vancouver, Eriksson Ek left the ice during overtime after a collision with Canucks winger Jake DeBrusk.

“I think we hit each other’s knees,” Eriksson Ek said. “So yeah, just an unlucky play.”

The Wild went 5-6-0 with their top-line center missing, including a season-worst, four-game losing streak. While Kirill Kaprizov missed a second consecutive game and his third of the season on Sunday, Minnesota coach John Hynes struck an optimistic note about getting two-thirds of the team’s standard top line back together to face Ottawa.

“It was nice that he had a full practice yesterday and feels good, so getting him back is obviously always a benefit,” he said. “With who he is as a player, who he is as a guy and what he means to our team, it’s good.”

In 22 games with the Wild this season, Eriksson Ek has five goals and eight assists for 13 points, normally playing center between Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, when all three are healthy. That has been a rarity this season, as the trio has combined to miss 29 games among the 37 that the Wild have played.

World Juniors 2026 prep underway

While the Ottawa Senators were in Minnesota on Sunday, around two dozen folks from the State of Hockey are in Ottawa this week, attending the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship and planning for a year from now when the world’s best young hockey talent comes to Minnesota.

The Senators’ home rink and a secondary site in Ottawa are hosting the 2025 event, while starting in December 2025 the games will be played at 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis and Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Twin Cities last hosted the World Juniors — which is considered second only to the Olympics among global hockey events — in 1982, with the since-demolished Met Center used as one of the rinks.

The group visiting Ottawa included officials from both local arenas, several people from Minnesota Sports and Events and Minnesota hockey legend Lou Nanne, who is one of the local ambassadors for the 2026 World Juniors.

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