ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway was back at the team’s practice facility Wednesday and appeared to escape serious injury a day after being struck in the neck by a puck and leaving the ice on a stretcher against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“I feel good today, feel way better,” Holloway said. “As soon as I got hit, I knew something was a little off, but then I saw we got a two on one, so I couldn’t pass up that opportunity. But as soon as I got to the bench, I was feeling a little woozy, and then I didn’t really remember much from there until I was on the stretcher close to the ambulance.”
Play had been stopped with 1:11 remaining in the first period for a high-sticking penalty that was later overturned when medical personnel for both teams started tending to Holloway before he was taken off the ice.
“I was more kind of in shock, like I wasn’t really too sure what happened and a little nauseous too,” Holloway said. “They gave me a little medication, and once I kind of figured out what really went down, I started kind of calming down and feeling better.”
Holloway was discharged from a St. Louis area hospital around 11 p.m. Tuesday and was told to abstain from physical activity for 24 hours.
Blues coach Drew Bannister said there’s a chance Holloway returns to the lineup in time for the team’s next game Thursday night versus Utah.
“I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves here. We’re only less than 12 hours away from what that injury was, so we’ll kind of take it day to day with him and see how he’s doing tomorrow, but today is a good day for us.”
Holloway’s parents, Bruce and Torrie, were in attendance at the game and accompanied him to the hospital.
“It’s definitely tough knowing that they were watching that,” Holloway said. “But, ultimately, having them there is way better. They’re staying with me, so I was able to talk with them last night, and it’s nice having some company around for sure.”
Holloway said he was getting score updates from his mom as the Blues rallied back from a 1-0 deficit to beat Tampa Bay 3-2.