After Blues enforcer D.J. King connected on a blow to the head of Dallas' Krys Barch, ending a one-sided fight Saturday night, King headed quickly to the locker room.

"It was a great moment to see him out there doing what he does best ... then I saw the look on his face," fellow Blues enforcer Cam Janssen said. "We looked at each other and then I looked at his hand. It was the worst feeling in world, knowing something was wrong."

Several sources have indicated that King has a broken hand and will miss significant time, but the Blues made no announcement Sunday regarding his injury status. Following Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Stars, the Blues said only that King had an upper-body injury.

So for the second straight season, King has suffered a serious injury in his season debut and both times the opponent was Dallas. He had a season-ending shoulder injury in his first game of 2008-09.

That injury required surgery, and King spent the entire summer rehabilitating. He was champing at the bit in training camp, but a few practices into camp King suffered a dislocated thumb also requiring surgery.

After missing the first two weeks with the thumb injury, King engaged Barch on the first shift of his first game Saturday night. King got in seven punches, but after Barch's helmet fell off, King threw one punch that hit Barch square in the forehead.

Both players went to their respective locker rooms; Barch returned and King didn't.

"That was tough," Blues forward B.J. Crombeen said. "You feel for him. He's a great guy in the room and he's worked so hard to get back. He came out and did what he does best, and did a great job. To see some bad luck like that, you feel for the guy."

The King-Barch fight was the first of three tussles in the game, continuing a trend that has developed over the past few years between the Blues and Stars.

"It's just the makeup of both teams," Crombeen said. "We both play a physical hard game. That's when we're at our best, when we're finishing checks and winning physical battles. When you have two teams going at each other like that, there's usually a little bit of overflow."

As a result, the Blues will be without King for what's expected to be several weeks, if not months. Janssen said that King's presence would be missed.

"It's good to have a guy like that helping you out with the big boys," Janssen said. "Just having him around, that tenacious factor ...

"But now he's gone. I think we still have a tough lineup. You saw the other night against (Minnesota). (Brad) Winchester was trying to fight, (Tyson) Strachan ... guys know that on the bench. They know that they have backup. Whoever picks on whoever, they're going to hear from someone."

PIETRANGELO PRODUCES

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo played his second game of the season Saturday, and the reviews were favorable.

Pietrangelo played 18 minutes, 16 seconds against Dallas, which was about five minutes more than he played against Los Angeles on Oct. 10. He scored his first NHL goal against Stars goalie Marty Turco, which would be the Blues' only goal of the game.

"I thought it was a big step up from Petro's first game," Blues coach Andy Murray said.