There are few injuries that were scarier than what happened to Dylan Holloway during the St. Louis Blues upset win over the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. The Blues, already down Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg, couldn’t have been dealt a worse hand after Holloway went down after taking a puck to the neck area.
The good news on that front is that Holloway seems to be okay after that scary moment, one that further put the Blues behind the eight-ball in so many ways. Injuries like this could rattle a team to the point that the focus is no longer on the game, and understandably so.
If I were one of those players who suited up for the Blues last night, maintaining focus on my job wouldn’t have been easy. Yet, while Holloway’s injury and its immediate aftermath undoubtedly put a dark cloud over the team last night, they still, somehow, found a way to beat another playoff-caliber team.
And it’s slowly restoring my faith in the Blues after I said this team would sink to seventh place, at best, in the Central. But that hasn’t happened despite the fact the Blues played with three of their better players out for this one, and it says a lot about this team’s resilience.
St. Louis Blues could be garnering attention all over the NHL
Again, we got good news on Dylan Holloway’s condition last night despite the scary scene. But wow, this is a team that was put in the worst possible situation yet refused to quit when it would have been entirely fathomable had they gone back out and lost by multiple goals.
But they didn’t, and it came at a time when they needed to make another contingency plan. While I’m still convinced this is not a good St. Louis Blues team, they’re slowly becoming one that myself and likely others all over the NHL universe, Blues fan or not, may start paying more attention to.
While the report linked above implied that Holloway could be ready to roll in the near future should subsequent tests come back okay, they’ll still be without Thomas and Broberg. Sure, these are more than unfortunate injuries, but if this team keeps up its current grit and upends opponents they have no business, or supposedly had no business, competing with this season, what is their limit?
One thing they can’t afford is to play down to an opponent, something they have done recently. Should the Blues continue to play solid hockey and a few role players keep stepping up, hey, maybe it won’t be so unrealistic to see this team contend a little.