Dylan Holloway was at the rink Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the St. Louis Blues forward was taken from the bench on a stretcher.
Holloway was hit in the neck by a shot from Lightning forward Nick Paul that deflected off the stick of Jordan Kyrou at 17:32 of the first period of a 3-2 win for the Blues against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Tuesday. He finished his shift, playing another 16 seconds, before skating to the bench.
Play was then halted during a stoppage with 1:11 remaining in the period, when Holloway was being attended to on the bench by the Blues' medical staff. After a few minutes, he was placed on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
The team later annnounced Holloway was alert and in stable condition.
"I feel good today," Holloway said Wednesday. "I feel way better. Obviously it was a scary situation. From what I've been told, the puck hit my Vagus nerve in my neck and as soon as I got hit, I knew something was a little off, but then I saw we got a little 2-on-1, so I couldn't pass up that opportunity. 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.
"As soon as the puck hit my neck, I knew something was a little off. As soon as I started skating, I felt a little light-headed a bit and then when I was going to the bench, it kind of felt like when you stand up too fast and you kind of get that head rush, it felt like that but it just kind of kept coming on. Then I was out."
Holloway did not take part in on ice drills at practice Wednesday, but said he hopes to play when the Blues host the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FDSNMW, Utah16).
"[Doctors] told me no activity for 24 hours and then I'm good to go," he said. "I'm hoping to play tomorrow, but we'll see. ... I was on the bike a little bit, so I was just kind of pedaling, getting my legs going a little bit, but nothing crazy. They just told me 24 hours, nothing strenuous. Hopeful to play tomorrow."
Four years ago, Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester suffered a cardiac event during a game against the Anaheim Ducks, and eventually had a successful Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) procedure. The game was suspended and made up in March. Bouwmeester never played another NHL game.
"It's one of those things you don't want to be a part of," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said after the game. "I've been through one of them, and thankfully he's OK. I'm not the guy to give updates, but we know he's doing OK. Just a freaky accident, freaky thing that happened. Glad that we got good news and he'll be fine.
"Thankfully we have Ray Barile and Dusty [Flynn] and Brendan [McClew] that stepped up and kind of a calming presence and did their job, waiting for the doctors to get in. Everyone did their job tonight, and those situations, they're awful to be a part of, but when you have calming influences ... and guys that know what they're doing, it makes everyone feel a little bit better at the time."
Forward Alexey Toropchenko was the one who called over Barile, the Blues' head athletic trainer, while sitting next to Holloway on the bench.
"I saw something happening and I told Ray. He knows what he's doing, and I was just kind of curious what was going on," Toropchenko said. "Doctors came in and I think everything is good right now. We were worried, everybody, but we were told he's OK and it's good to hear."
After Holloway had been taken away on a stretcher, the officials decided to send both teams to their locker rooms, with the remaining 1:11 to be played after the intermission.
"That was tough. The thing is, I didn't really see it, so it was hard to understand what was going on, and you see all the St. Louis Blues players reacting. So, when it went back on tape, it was a super scary situation," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We talked about it in the locker room, too, like, we hope this kid is OK. It's obviously a lot bigger than the game. To hear the public address announcer say that he seemed to be doing better when he was going to the hospital, that made everybody, definitely on our bench, feel better."
Holloway has six points (four goals, two assists) in 13 games this season, his first with St. Louis after signing a two-year contract on Aug. 20.
"I didn't realize that they stopped the game, I didn't realize that it was actually that big of a deal, but I'm just thankful that all the medical staff and everybody was so hands-on and I were able to get me to the hospital safely," Holloway said.
NHL.com independent correspondent Lou Korac contributed to this report
