from Emily Kaplan of ESPN,

On Thursday night in Montreal, Minnesota Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek blocked a shot from Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber on the penalty kill. Ek hobbled a bit, but stayed on the ice. He then blocked another shot by Weber. Again, Ek was rattled. He stayed on the ice. And then Ek blocked his third consecutive shot by Weber -- all in one shift. Ek finally was able to limp off, getting a big embrace from teammate Matt Dumba on the bench.

Michael Russo of The Athletic reported that the 22-year-old Ek left the arena in a boot; he'll be out for a week or two.

Five nights earlier, in Colorado, Arizona Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson blocked a shot from Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson. Hjalmarsson, one of the Yotes' best blueliners, broke his fibula and is expected to miss about three months; this is a major blow for a team that led the league in man games lost last season with a freakish number of injuries....

o this week, I decided to ask guys about it.

"Obviously sticks are a lot better," Blackhawks goaltender Robin Lehner said. "When I got into the league a while ago [in 2010], you always had that group of guys on the team that had good shots. Then you had a group of guys on the team that didn't have good shots. These days everyone shoots well. There's no more divide."

Lehner also mentioned the speed of the game as a contributing factor.

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