Joel Eriksson Ek Should Take Boxing Lessons This Offseason

Ek needs to tap into his inner Viking roots.  I don't want to see him fighting all the time, but if he could go berserker mode in a few fights I think he take less punishment throughout the year.

-_-

Ek, I think, has never had a 5-minute major for fighting.  First and foremost, a successful fighter has to want that fight more than the other guy.  Ek is not that guy.  Ek has a world-class glare, though.  He draws his share of penalties, but takes a ton of unrewarded abuse.  What Ek might do this summer is spend the time skating 1-on-2 to get a shot on goal.  He does many things well, but he struggles to charge through the opposition and get that shot.  

Ek was able to push some pretty big boys around this year.  The guy is strong.  I don't want him in the box.  We need him on the ice.  So I personally hope he stays away from the fighting side of things.  I hope he keeps doing what he has been doing and maybe works a bit more on his shot.  Amazing player that does everything for us.

I disagree that Ekker should be throwing punches...it seems like he's much more effective with his dopey smile than he would be throwing haymakers and sitting in the sin-bin.

Dumba:

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“You just want to slash him across the head.  He just plays hard. He’s strong. He’s physically imposing, and that just annoys the heck out of you. This guy’s just always over you, I feel. In practice sometimes, it’s like, ‘Come on, just leave me alone already.’”

Parise:

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“It’s that face.  It’s just that look on his face. I think it drives players crazy. He just looks at you with that face, you know, kind of like a blank stare and a slight grin. He’s just got that look, like after he knocks the puck away from you, he kind of gives you that look, and opponents are like, ‘I don’t know whether to be pissed off at you or not,’ you know what I mean? It’s great, it’s awesome.”

Al Stalock:

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 “It’s the fact that they get no reaction.  He is that annoying little guy. Like I see stuff where the scrum’s done and he gives that last whack quick. Like the guy’s skating away, and he’ll just slap the guy’s stick or jab him in the back, you know, little stuff like that. He’s like the annoying younger brother that always gets the last lick in on the older brother, and then it’s the older brother who gets in trouble. It’s almost like that where the scrum happens, and then he’ll do something really minor, and the guy looks back over his shoulder and is like, ‘Him again?’ And then they get in Ekker’s face and he just doesn’t do shit. They just get no reaction. He just kind of stares at them, which pisses them off even more.”

Moose:

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“I think the biggest thing, too, is I don’t think he knows how to chirp. He hits the guy and he doesn’t really say much after. The guy wants to get into a verbal feud match, and it doesn’t really work out that way because Ekker doesn’t say a thing from the get-go. That just frustrates a lot of guys because they want to see him get really, really angry, but he really doesn’t. You saw it against (Jack) Eichel  in Buffalo. Ekker handled him in the corner and then Eichel gets frustrated and just jumps him. It’s amazing. Ekker just stays on his feet, is always getting punched at, yet he takes it and he goes with it and even gives you the slightest smile as you’re punching him. And that just frustrates these guys even more. He looks like Lloyd Christmas, so now it’s even worse when he smiles at you.”

Ek is too important to spend 5+ in the box. A little head movement to dodge a few punches isn't a bad idea but I would rather have a team that gets under their skin the way he does than a bunch of fighters. We had that this year, the wild led the league in fights, didn't help much. Lets try staying out of the box and trying to get under the opponents skin, maybe con them into dumb penalties.