DENVER (AP) — The Minnesota Wild will be without forward Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin for the first two games of their second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche because of lower-body injuries.

Neither player made the trip to Denver. Wild coach John Hynes said the team is still “making a couple decisions on the lineup” ahead of Game 1 on Sunday night.

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The Avalanche will be without defenseman Josh Manson, who missed the series clincher against the Los Angeles Kings last Sunday with an upper-body injury. Avs coach Jared Bednar said Nick Blankenburg will slide into Manson’s place. The team acquired Blankenburg in a deal with Nashville on March 4.

“He’s played good in the time he’s been with us,” Bednar said. “We got him for a reason — like the way he moves, like the way he moves the puck. He plays with a little bite. He’s got to stay within himself. It’s going to be a challenge for him tonight, because the thing we’ll miss with (Manson) is the size, the strength, the physicality.”

Eriksson Ek had three goals and two assists in the Wild’s first-round series win over Dallas. He finished with a 56.4% faceoff win rate. Danila Yurov and Hunter Haight could be possibilities to take Eriksson Ek’s place.

“Ekky’s a big part of the team,” Hynes said. “When you lose a guy that plays that many situations, you have to do it collectively as a group, and it’s not all on one guy.”

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Brodin didn’t play in Game 6 against Dallas.

Hynes said given the break between Games 2 and 3 — the teams play Tuesday and not again until Saturday — that “both those guys will be reevaluated and see where it goes from there.”

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s mixed 4x400m team won bronze at the World Athletics Relays in Botswana, while four other GB teams also qualified automatically for the 2027 World Athletics Championships.

Alex Haydock-Wilson, Lina Nielsen, Jake Minshull and Yemi Mary John finished third in three minutes 8.24 seconds, behind the USA and Jamaica.

A place on the podium qualifies the 4×400 mixed team for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest in September.

GB’s men’s 4x100m, the women’s 4x400m and the mixed 4x100m line-ups progressed to Sunday’s finals from Saturday’s heats, earning them a place in Beijing next year.

The women’s 4x100m team, who were disqualified after finishing second in their first day heat, came in second in their Sunday repechage to take one of four remaining World Championships slots.

However the men’s 4x400m quartet, who finished seventh in their first race, placed third in their repechage and will bid to qualify for Beijing on time at a later date.

The women’s 4x400m squad finished fourth, while the men’s and mixed 4x100m teams both failed to get the baton round in their finals.

British athletes won medals in all five relay events at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but failed to reach the podium at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.

Vanessa Bryant‘s close friend Monica Denise stepped forward to debunk remarriage rumors surrounding the Lakers icon’s widow. It has been six years since Kobe Bryant died in a tragic helicopter crash along with his daughter Gianna Bryant.

Since then, Vanessa and her three daughters have been mourning their big loss. On Saturday, an Instagram account claimed that the Lakers icon’s wife is set to remarry after inheriting 50% of her late husband’s wealth.

The post claimed that the other 50% of Kobe Bryant’s wealth would be distributed among his three daughters. Monica Denise dropped in the post’s comments section to debunk the rumor. The singer revealed that the rumor was absolutely untrue.

“Absolutely Untrue and Not ok, she’s still grieving deeply! Her deceased daughter’s birthday was yesterday! As her friend, I kindly ask for prayers & silence ❤️” she wrote.

Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Bryant met each other at a music video set in 1999. The widow of the Lakers icon was a background dancer on set at the time. Their relationship took off from that point and they dated for almost two years.

The couple took the next step in their relationship on 18 April, 2001. The couple welcomed four daughters into the world. Kobe and Vanessa Bryant went through many ups and downs in their marriage, but they stayed together in the end. However, their relationship came to a tragic end with Bryant’s untimely death on Jan. 26, 2020.

“She is always there”: Monica Denise once revealed the depth of her friendship with Vanessa Bryant

Following the Lakers icon and her daughter’s death, Monica Denise supported Vanessa Bryant through the bad times. On August 28, 2020, Denise did an interview with ET, where she talked about being there for Bryant while she was mourning the loss of her husband and child. During one segment, she revealed her thoughts on her friendship with Bryant.

“I always say ’till death do us part because this is something that will forever be a pain. But she’s been a strong one. She’s been really strong,” she said. “I’m really proud of her and I have been really fortunate to have her in my corner through my divorce, through everything that has ever happened in my life. She is always there.”

Later, she recalled an incident when Vanessa Bryant helped turn one of her worst birthdays into a good one.

“One of my worst birthdays, that was the first person to shut down a restaurant and say, ‘This is what we are doing!’ You have got to give what you get. She has been an amazing friend, so it is easy to just be one back.”

Denise and Bryant have been close friends for more than a decade and always look out for each other and their families.