“Obviously, it’s a scary situation,” Holloway said when speaking to the media following practice on Wednesday. “From what I’ve been told, the puck hit my Vagus nerve in my neck. As soon as I got hit, I knew something was a little off.”

“I saw we had a two-on-one, so I couldn’t pass up that opportunity,” Holloway continued. “As soon as I got to the bench, I felt a little woozy and didn’t remember much from there until I was on the stretcher.”

Holloway’s parents, who were in town in St. Louis attending the game, joined him at the hospital. Sources said Holloway was scheduled for a precautionary scan at the hospital to examine the area, where there was no immediate swelling in the neck.

That was a welcomed sigh of relief for Holloway, the Blues and Blues fans, after stunned silence enveloped Enterprise Center while Holloway was attended to on the bench and transported off on a stretcher.

With less than two minutes to play in the first period, a shot from Tampa Bay forward Nick Paul rode up the stick of Blues teammate Jordan Kyrou and struck Holloway just above his right shoulder pad in an unprotected area near his neck. Holloway completed his shift for 20 to 30 seconds after the impact, cleared the puck out of the zone and then made his way to the bench, where he was in distress.

Sources inside Enterprise Center said teammate Alexey Toropchenko hurriedly alerted the Blues’ training staff that Holloway required immediate attention. Head athletic trainer Ray Barile and his team jumped into action. Despite the scary scene, Holloway was in great hands with Barile and the Blues, who are well-trained and have a ton of emergency medical experience in Barile’s 30 years behind an NHL bench. Barile was on the ice when Blues defenseman Chris Pronger’s heart stopped after taking a slap shot to the chest in 1998 and when Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester went into cardiac arrest on Feb. 11, 2020.