Getty Image / Scott Rovak/NHLI
A very tense moment happened on Tuesday night when St. Louis Blues winger Dylan Holloway took a puck to the neck from Tampa Bay’s Nick Paul. It was a totally freak injury with Paul trying to dump the puck past Holloway, attempting to fire it into the boards behind the Blues’ net. Instead, it caught Dylan Holloway in the right side of his neck.
For a moment, it seemed like Dylan Holloway would be fine. He continued skating around the ice during his shift and almost scored a goal from a tip-in moments after taking the puck to his neck. But within a matter of seconds, he was skating to the Blues’ bench and leaning his neck as if in pain and the situation grew serious quickly with Dylan Holloway being carted off in a stretcher.
Here is the back and forth clip of the injury and below this video from X is a second clip from Dr. Brian Sutterer where he explains the nature of the injury, why Dylan Holloway was stretchered off the ice, and what the potential injury might be:
Full sequence of Dylan Holloway taking puck to neck area/ leaving game on stretcher.
Hoping he's okay. pic.twitter.com/WSWW9oRznl
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) November 6, 2024
It was wild to see him skating around after taking the puck to his neck but within moments it became clear to everyone that Dylan Holloway’s injury was serious. Here is Brian Sutterer MD explaining the nature of this injury, step by step:
He starts by saying he doesn’t think anything initially “stood off as being concerning for a cardiac arrest” situation. Nobody did CPR/chest compressions after the incident so there is no reason to assume it was tied to a cardiac arrest.
Speculating that the puck hit more of the front of the throat than the back of the throat, he believes it missed the neck portion near the cervical spine. Keep in mind this is all speculation on this doctor’s behalf.
After making it to the bench, Nick Holloway’s injury is clearly causing a great deal of pain. The medical staff stabilizes his cervical spine the same as they would in other sports (football, etc) where the athlete is facing a possible neck injury.
His 2 main theories are a possible brachial plexus injury or something to do with his Dylan Holloway’s blood pressure. He describes the ‘pressure sensors’ in that region that regulate blood pressure and it’s possible the puck injury could have dilated Dylan Holloway’s blood vessels leading to a blood pressure fluctuation.
I actually watched my wife go through one of those injuries a few months ago after smashing her knee on a table, causing a dip in her blood pressure, leading to sweating bullets and nearly fainting while laying down in the booth at a restaurant. It was wild. Of course, I’m not a medical professional so I haven’t the slightest idea if that’s what Dylan Holloway’s injury was so I will defer to the expert on this.