St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway was stretchered off the ice during a game Tuesday night after being hit in the neck by a hockey puck.

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

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

“I was just sitting next to him and I saw something was happening,” Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko said. told reporters after the match. “I told Ray (Barile, the Blues coach). He knows what he’s doing. I was just a little curious as to what was going on. The doctors came and I think everything is fine right now. But we were worried, everyone.

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

“I think the only way to express it is if you’re at work and you get a call and someone in your family is sick and you rush to the hospital,” the United States coach said. Blues Drew Bannister. “Holly is a member of the family. It was hard. I think we as a group showed a lot of courage and mental capacity to overcome this, because the easiest thing to do is go somewhere else. But we were able to get some updates on Holly and reassure ourselves a little and refocus.

According to the teamHolloway was alert and in stable condition at the hospital.

Still, the incident shook his teammates.

“It’s tough,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “He’s your teammate. Then we heard he was fine. And then you have to think a little and go back and play a hockey game, right? Unfortunately, that’s just the reality of the sport, and it took us a while to get going.

Hockey teams have placed more emphasis on neck protection in the past year following the death of Adam Johnson, a British player who died after his neck was cut by another player’s skate blade during a match.

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