St. Louis Blues fans got some great news Wednesday as forward Dylan Holloway returned to the team less than a day after being stretchered off the ice.
Holloway suffered a scary injury in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was hit in the neck by a puck late in the first period and left the game on a stretcher and was transported to a nearby hospital.
He told reporters on Wednesday that he hopes to play in Thursday’s game against Utah. He did not practice as he was told to not participate in any activities for 24 hours.
“I feel good today, I feel way better,” Holloway said. “Obviously it was a scary situation … As soon as I got hit I knew something was a little off.”
Blues head coach Drew Bannister took a more cautious approach, but did say that Holloway’s return to the team was a good sign.
“We don’t want to get too far ahead ourselves. We’re less than 12 hours away from that injury,” Banniester told reporters. “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.”
The incident occurred with 2:37 left in the first period. He proceeded to finish his shift before skating back to his team’s bench under his own power.
As play was stopped with 1:11 remaining for a high-sticking penalty that was later called off, teammates started calling and gesturing for assistance.
Blues trainer Ray Barile and medical staff from both teams tended to Holloway for several minutes before emergency medical technicians carted him off the bench on a stretcher.
He was brought to a nearby hospital for further observation and the team announced that the centre was alert and stable.
“It’s hard,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said after Tuesday’s game. “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.”
— With files from the Associated Press