St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway told reporters on Wednesday that he is feeling “much better,” a day after he was hit in the neck by a puck during a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“I feel good today,” Holloway said. “I feel much better. It’s clearly a scary situation. From what I was told, the puck hit my vagus nerve in my neck. As soon as I got hit, I knew something was wrong. But then I saw we had a two-on-one, so I couldn’t pass up that opportunity. As soon as I got to the bank I felt a little dizzy and didn’t remember much until I was on the stretcher.
The incident occurred in the first period of Tuesday night’s game at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. Lightning forward Nick Paul took a shot that deflected off the stick of the Blues’ Jordan Kyrou and hit Holloway high. He kept playing, skating on the ice and almost had a scoring opportunity at the other end. Nearly a minute later, as he headed to the bench at the end of his shift, he began to feel uncomfortable and teammate Alexey Toropchenko quickly notified the athletic training staff.
After receiving medical attention, Holloway was loaded onto a stretcher and moved from the Blues bench to the locker room. The game was stopped during that time with 1:11 remaining in the period. The officials opted to end the period and resume play with extra time for the second period.
Holloway was taken to a local hospital and was found alert and in stable condition. A few hours later he was fired.
Holloway was told by doctors to rest on Wednesday and see how he feels on Thursday, with the possibility he could be back in the Blues’ lineup for their game against Utah.
“They told me there was no activity for 24 hours and then I’m good to go,” Holloway said. “I hope to play [Thursday]but we will see.”
