Blues player was bedded off the ice after shooting hockey puck at the neck

St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway was carried off the field 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 a missed shot. It wasn't until he walked 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 from Wisconsin was examined by medical personnel before being placed on a stretcher and then taken to a St. Louis-area hospital for observation.

“I was just sitting next to him and I saw something happen,” Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko told reporters after the game. “I told Ray (Barile, the Blues coach). He knows what he's doing. I was just curious about what was going on. The doctors came in and I think everything is good at the moment. But we were all worried.”

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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 seasons previously with the Edmonton Oilers.

“I guess the only way I can put it is you're at work, you get a call and one of your family members is sick and you rush to the hospital,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “Holly is a member of the family. That was hard. I thought we showed a lot of fortitude as a group and were mentally capable of pushing through this because the easiest thing to do is put your head somewhere else. But we were able to catch up on Holly and calm down a bit and refocus.”

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

Still, the incident shocked his teammates.

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

Hockey teams have placed greater focus on neck protection in the last year following the death of Adam Johnson, a player in the United Kingdom who died after his neck was injured by another player's skate blade during a game.

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