Stars’ Peverley still hospitalized

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS

Stars forward Rich Peverley remained hospitalized Tuesday in Dallas, undergoing heart tests after collapsing on the bench during a game that was postponed.

His teammates? They are trying to deal with what they saw.

After an eerily quiet flight and sleepless nights all around, the Stars were back on the ice for a morning skate in St. Louis, relieved that Peverley’s irregular heart condition had stabilized but clearly shaken by an event that puts their playoff push in perspective.

Even if the NHL hadn’t postponed the game Monday night in Dallas with the Blue Jackets leading 1-0 early in the first period, linemate Tyler Seguin was done for the night. He’d come off the ice just ahead of Peverley and was right there when Peverley lost consciousness during what the team called a “cardiac event.”

“I went in the room and took my stuff off right away,” Seguin said, his voice catching a bit. “I was right beside him when it was all happening.”

Forward Vernon Fiddler was with Nashville when the Red Wings’ Jiri Fischer collapsed on the Detroit bench in 2005, also from a heart problem.

“You don’t expect that ever to happen,” Fiddler said. “I’ve been unfortunate to be part of both of those.”

Fiddler was among four Stars players made available after the morning skate, a veteran hoping to help the kids cope.

“It’s pretty emotional when you see your teammate collapse like that,” Fiddler said. “We have some young guys on the team and it’s a lot more difficult for them because they haven’t been through things the older guys have been through. You’ve got to help them through that.”

For one Stars teammate, Alex Chiasson, it was too much. The team said he had joined Peverley in a Dallas hospital for observation because he was so distraught.

“Yeah, yeah, he wasn’t doing good,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “A lot of anxiety associated with what happened last night.”

The Blues also had emotions to sort out.

Coach Ken Hitchcock was watching on TV and remembered “the silence was deafening.” Hitchcock rewound his DVR and then froze the screen trying to detect who was in peril on the Stars bench, then waited nervously for an update.

“Lindy saying he’s OK, he’s asking about ‘Can he play?’ again, I think calmed everybody down,” Hitchcock said. “But there was no way you could play the game. The look on the players’ faces on both sides, there was no way you could play the game.”