Stars’ Hatcher to Return Tonight

DALLAS — Derian Hatcher, captain of the Dallas Stars, returns after a seven-game suspension tonight, when the Stars play host to the road-weary St. Louis Blues in Game 2 of their best-of-seven series.

Hatcher was suspended after breaking the jaw of Phoenix’s Jeremy Roenick. He missed two games in the regular season, and the Stars have gone 5-0 in the playoffs without their big defenseman.

Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said, “We’re going to have to tone him down a little bit. He is a real excited guy right now.”

Brett Hull, who finally scored a playoff goal for Dallas in Thursday night’s 3-0 victory over the Blues in Game 1, said Hatcher has been missed despite the team’s winning ways.

“He’s our leader and our captain, and he gives us a big, physical presence,” Hull said. “To have him back fills a big hole. He’ll add some toughness to our lineup.”

Hatcher said he has been counting the hours.

“I’m ready to go,” he said. “It’s been hard watching these guys play without me.”

Missing the game will be the Stars’ Pat Verbeek and the Blues’ Jamal Mayers. Both were suspended Friday for one game after slashing incidents on Thursday night.

Verbeek, who was just returning from an injury, slashed St. Louis center Pierre Turgeon on the knee with 2:18 left.

Two minutes later, Mayers took a baseball-type swing to the arm of Dallas defenseman Darryl Sydor.

Even though Turgeon isn’t expected to sit out tonight’s game, St. Louis Coach Joel Quenneville was upset with Verbeek. “That Verbeek slash was pretty vicious,” Quenneville said. “Verbeek looked like he knew what he was doing.”

Turgeon said, “I lost feeling in my leg. We’ll see how it feels.”

St. Louis goalie Grant Fuhr said, “That was a cheap shot on Pierre. I hope the league deals with it.”

Fuhr said the Blues might be able to rally around the hit.

“Maybe we lacked emotion,” Fuhr said. “It was clearly our worst game of the playoffs.”