Jonas Brodin will not play for the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (9 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN360, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Brodin, a regular on the Wild's second defense pair with Jared Spurgeon, sustained a lower-body injury in the second period of a 4-2 win in Game 5 of the first round against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday after blocking a shot by Stars forward Mikko Rantanen. He left the game at 1:44 of the second period and missed Game 6, a 5-2 win by Minnesota to clinch the best-of-7 series.
"He will not be ready for Game 1," Wild coach John Hynes said on Saturday. "... He's not traveling."
Brodin had one assist in five games against the Stars and averaged 19:41 of ice time per game. The 32-year-old had 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) in 62 regular-season games, averaging 20:17 of ice time.
Jeff Petry replaced Brodin for Game 6 and played 7:13, but Hynes did not say if he would be in the lineup on Sunday with Brodin out.
Hynes also said forward Joel Eriksson Ek was "questionable" to play in Game 1 and unsure if he would be traveling with the team.
The center was injured in Game 6 when he lost an edge and slid into the wall with his right leg, but finished the game. He did not practice Saturday.
"I'm kind of going through that a little bit right now," Hynes said. "So, now you kind of go down that decision-making process of what would we do if he's not ready."
Eriksson Ek had five points (three goals, two assists) in 23:44 of ice time per game in the first round and led the Wild with a 56.4 face-off winning percentage. He had 51 points (19 goals, 32 assists) in 70 regular-season games.
"It's just trying to find if 'Ekky' is not ready to start, what combination (of centers) would we go with and then I think we're going to have to continually evaluate that," Hynes said.
