Zuccarello gets cut open and leaves practice in first skate back from injury.

You’ll excuse Dallas Stars fans if they’re a little excited about the return of recently acquired forward Mats Zuccarello. The diminutive forward, of course, was acquired by the team form the New York Rangers ahead of last month’s trade deadline and had an incredible debut with his new team that consisted of a goal, an assist and, unfortunately, a broken arm.

Here’s the good:

And the bad:

Ouch.

The good news is that Zuccarello has nearly recovered fully from the injury and in fact skated with his team today in his first full contact practice. The bad news? He got absolutely trucked by teammate Joel L'Espérance and was forced to leave practice.

Check it out:

And here’s an actual clip of the collision, thankfully it appears that Zuccarello will be okay and only needed stitches to get back on the ice.

Check it out:

Now get out there and get the Stars into the playoffs, Zucc!