Stars announcer Daryl 'Razor' Reaugh gives his account of Rich Peverley's collapse

Dallas Stars television color analyst Daryl "Razor" Reaugh spoke with Norm Hitzges on KTCK-AM/FM 1310/96.7 this morning to discuss last night's episode involving Rich Peverley.

Below is a transcript of his comments:

On whether he had an idea of what was going on when Peverley collapsed:

“None whatsoever in the beginning because the play was going on and then all of the sudden it was just pandemonium and chaos at the Stars bench. Things flash through your mind of what it might be. Did somebody get cut with a skate? There are time when there’s an injury or whatever and there’s a commotion on either bench and a player’s leaving the rink but this was completely different. Lindy Ruff was up and flailing his arms and trying to get the attention of both the officials and — as he said at the press conference after — a doctor. It doesn’t show on any of the video that was captured. You could sheer when you were in there just the sheer panic and the distress that was going on with our players and with our coaches with what had happened.”

On discovering that it was Rich Peverley:

“You move forward and you’re like, ‘Who is it?’ Because you know the precondition of Rich, your worst fears are there and you’re thinking, ‘That’s probably what it was.’ You can’t say it because you don’t know it yet. The most striking thing was looking at the video of the faces of the players and the coaches who just watched their teammate go essentially lifeless on their bench. Then you just shut up for a while it is what you do, and try to figure exactly what is going on without screwing it up and starting to speculate and babble. It was bizarre. I’ve never been a part of something like that.”

On after Peverley collapsed:

“Nobody could make an announcement. What announcement are you going to make anyway at that point? Our doctors, our training staff were absolute friggin’ rock stars last night. They were working on Rich 25 feet from our bench in the hallway. … You could see them pack someone from the bench and hustle down the hallway to get the paddles on him and that. As we heard after, one shot with the paddles and they brought him back like that, which was the greatest news they could have and he was conscious when he left, but it took them a long time to get that.”

On whether the heart actually stopped:

“It was surreal even after the game, that this group was loading up and marching on to St. Louis. Guys’ faces told the entire story. … My understanding is that is pretty much what happened. They gave him oxygen, gave him the paddles, brought his heart rhythm back and then took him back to the hospital.”

On the game getting postponed:

“I don’t know that you could say enough about how Lindy Ruff has handled himself done in his first season with the Dallas Stars, what he’s been doing with this group and what he did last night. Whether there were back room debates whether to go forward with the game or not … you could see the condition of the players. It was like, ‘There’s no way we’re playing.’ I think (Ruff) said that in his press conference too. The message to the league was, ‘We can’t play.’ ”

On what the doctors told Peverley when his condition was discovered in the preseason:

“I would think the message was that the risks were taken care of. Not even knowing whether this is completely to do with what he was dealing with or whether it was some other area of the heart that had failed him. … Everyone was quite confident, from what I understand, that this was being treated and he was going to be able to go on with his NFL career.”

On dealing with the whole event on the broadcast:

“The last thing on earth you want to do is end up like CNN and be giving out information and then backtracking and saying, ‘Well that actually wasn’t true.’ The message is always to just shut up until you get whatever confirmation of information you can give forth because people want to know, but at the same time you want to give them the right information. I’m not versed in how to handle these types of things. You just kind of juggle things as they’re going on. The best news of the night is that Rich was conscious and talking, because it didn’t look like that was going to be part of the equation right after that thing started at the Stars bench and you knew it was Rich Peverley.”

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