Blues Player Stretchered Off Ice After Taking Hockey Puck to the Neck in Freak Injury

Dylan Holloway, 23, was transported to a St. Louis-area hospital and is in stable condition, the team said

St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway was stretchered off the rink during a game on Tuesday night after he was struck in the neck by a hockey puck.

Holloway, 23, went down late in the first period in the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, Nov. 5 after he was hit by the errant shot. It wasn’t until he skated to the bench after the play that he began holding his neck and tilting his head to the side, ESPN reported.

The third-year player out of Wisconsin was evaluated by medical staff before he was loaded onto a stretcher and then taken to a St. Louis-area hospital for observation.

“I was just sitting beside him and saw something was happening,” Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko told reporters after the game. “I told Ray [Barile, the Blues’ trainer]. He knows what he’s doing. I was just kind of curious to what’s going on. Doctors came in and, like, I think everything is good right now. But we were worried, everybody.”

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Blues coach Drew Bannister also showed concern for his player, who is in his first year with the team after two previous seasons with the Edmonton Oilers.

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“I think the only way I can put it is if you’re at work, and you get a call, and one of your family members is sick, and you rush to the hospital,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “Holly’s a family member. That was tough. I thought we, as a group, showed a lot of fortitude, and the way mentally being able to push through that, because the easiest thing to do is your head goes somewhere else. But, we were able to get updates on Holly and kind of put our minds at ease a little bit and refocus ourselves.”

According to the team, Holloway was alert and in stable condition at the hospital.

Still, the incident shook up his fellow teammates.

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“It’s hard,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “It’s your teammate. Then we got news that he’s going to be fine. And then, you have to wrap your head around it a little bit and go play a hockey game again, right? So that’s just, unfortunately, the reality of the sport, and it took us awhile to get going.”

Hockey teams have placed a greater focus on neck protection in the last year after the death of Adam Johnson, a player in the U.K. who died after his neck was cut by the skate blade of another player during a game.

USA Hockey, the American Hockey League and the International Ice Hockey Federation all now require players to wear neck protection during games, and while the NHL has not yet made the same regulations, some players have opted to wear them.