Minnesota Wild lose Joel Eriksson Ek to practice injury. Unfortunately, news broke Tuesday morning that the Wild will play tonight without assistant captain and notorious instigat

And it was a hard lesson for the Minnesota Wild to re-learn on Tuesday ... which has been one of the Eastern Conference’s hottest teams following a midseason coaching change.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia − Justin Brazeau traveled from Raleigh to Denver where he had a two-hour layover before meeting up with the Wild on Friday afternoon in western Canada. “Ate a little bit,” he said.

The last time the Boston Bruins saw the Minnesota Wild was when Jeremey Swayman made 36 saves in a shutout effort a month ago at TD Garden. On Sunday, Filip Gustavsson returned the favor for Minnesota,

Rangers add defenseman Carson Soucy in trade with Vancouver Canucks in effort to build up battered blue line crew

The Minnesota Wild are back in town for the fourth and final matchup of the regular season between the two clubs. Utah has earned points in all three games against the Wild, falling 5-4 in a shootout at home on Dec. 10, winning 2-1 in St. Paul on Dec. 20, and shutting out Minnesota 4-0 at Xcel Energy Center on Jan. 23.

The defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers made their first big move ahead of the NHL trade deadline by acquiring hard-nosed forward Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins.

GM Craig Conroy made no moves at the deadline, although it’s worth noting that he did pull off a big one at the end of January when he flipped Jakob Pelletier and Andrei Kuzmenko to the Philadelphia Flyers and got Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee in return. But that was it, as far as moves go.

Defensemen Seth Jones and Ryan Lindgren and forward Gustav Nyquist were on the move as three Central Division teams got a jump on the NHL’s looming trade deadline.

Detroit Red Wings second-line center Andrew Copp had season-ending surgery to repair his left pectoral tendon on Tuesday, three days after he was injured in a scuffle during a game against the Minnesota Wild.