Justin Holl, raised in hockey heaven, might be the Maple Leafs’ best defenceman so far
Holl #Holl
Is this heaven?
No, it’s Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, as close to dreamy hockey heaven as it gets in America.
Where Justin Holl grew up skating on a frozen inlet and on frozen ponds. In the teeny town of Tonka Bay, population 1,475.
“Pond hockey and outdoor rinks were a huge part of my childhood. A nice lagoon as part of Lake ’Tonka that froze over perfectly to play hockey. That’s hockey in its purest form. I’ll always be nostalgic about those times. A lot of memories. First time I learned how to backward skate was out there.”
With a father who once rode his bike from Alaska to Mexico as a quirky adventure and then wrote a book about it.
“I would say that quirky undertaking — as you put it — was kind of a microcosm about my dad’s general attitude, which is you can do it. That’s basically been his message to me all through life, and not even an explicit message, just something that I watched him and realized, yeah, you’re capable of more than you think.”
Holl has had to remind himself of that mantra — yes you can — when a significant person in the Maple Leafs organization, now jettisoned, thought different.
From there to here, Rockwellian childhood to, at this moment, arguably the most stalwart defenceman on the Toronto blue line, deploying that backward skating smoothness for the Leafs. Through Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Oilers — on his 29th birthday — Holl is averaging 22:04 minutes of ice time, just behind Morgan Rielly among the D cadre, second in points by the jump-up rearguard and, clearly, increasingly trusted by Sheldon Keefe.
He’s thriving, being that guy for the Leafs, particularly in high-leverage situations: Holl and partner Jake Muzzin logged 2:32 of short-handed ice time in Edmonton, though the tandem couldn’t keep Connor McDavid from scoring on an obstacle-navigated end-to-end power-play rush, on a dazzling three-point night.
“I love that,” Holl tells the Star, of being cemented as a coach’s mainstay. “I take a lot of pride in that. You talk to anybody on the team and they all say they perform better with more ice time. Being able to get out there that often just makes everything in your game sharper. Gets the confidence going more and it’s just easier to play.”
The Leafs returned from their four-game western road trip with a passel of points and atop the North Division, if annoyed by the OT outcome Saturday.
“The win was something we were definitely after,” Holl said afterwards in a Zoom session with reporters, “… but in the grand scheme of things taking seven out of eight points on the road is never going to be a bad thing for our group. We’ll learn from it and move forward.”
Five of Toronto’s seven wins across 10 games have been by one goal. All have been gritty, grinding affairs, which is not really the Leafs’ template. Plenty of their goals have been greasy rather than flashy as befits a glossy offence. But copping the close ones is likely to be the defining element of this truncated all-Canadian division season. (And the bloom has quickly worn off that rose; missing the Lightning and the Bruins and Capitals et al.)
“It’s something to be proud of in a lot of ways,” argues Holl of the slim win margins. “They’re character wins. To be able to hold a win going into third period, especially one-goal leads, is a really positive sign for a team. That being said, I think we’re a lot better than that too. We should be pulling away from teams. We should be able to dominate games more than we have.”
Here’s an interesting statistical tidbit about Holl:
The prevailing view is that the six-foot-four specimen — 15 hits — has benefited tremendously from being paired with Muzzin. Indeed, he’s the first to give the veteran props. “Muzz has been great for me to play with as a partner. He’s very good with the puck, he’s physical, he’s really effective on the breakouts and he talks a lot. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
The duo is among the dominant D-braces in the NHL. Yet, entering the weekend as per Natural Stat Trick, it was Holl who ranked first among Leafs defencemen in Corsi for, goals for and expected goals for (No. 2 leaguewide) at five-on-five. In fact, defensive metrics showed that, when apart, Holl’s Corsi for shrinks minimally while Muzzin’s tumbles by more than 20 percentage points. A strong argument could be made that it’s been, this season, Holl boosting Muzzin rather than the other way around.
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If, of course, you attach much weight to defensive metrics, which are notoriously disputable.
Holl shrugs off the stats. “Numbers tell only part of the story. The eye test tells another part of the story. Underlying stats are just one metric that you can use to evaluate people. It’s not the be-all and end-all.”
Yay Holl.
Of his own evolving game, Holl takes a firmer stance. “The strongest part of my game is probably killing plays early.” As the opposition mounts its puck possession exits. “Having tight gaps in the offensive zone and neutral zone, holding the puck in along the wall and minding their breakouts. Killing their plays in the neutral zone before they can get going.”
That’s been more effectively done with the team’s overall defensive vigilance this season, a new-found adherence on the backcheck. “When our forwards are consistently above their centre, it gives us the freedom to have those tight gaps and try to force turnovers in the neutral zone. In terms of the whole scheme, it helps when you have five guys coming back and five guys working together as a unit.”
Not to bang on about frustrating days gone by, but the mere fact Holl is a crucial part of this conversation can be traced to the departure of Mike Babcock. Recall that the coach made Holl a healthy scratch in 71 games in 2018-19, when the player spent more time eating popcorn in the press box than dressed.
“I always felt like, if could get a chance, I know I can play. But then you also don’t know if you’ll get the chance. It’s one thing to know that you can, it’s another thing to actually do it. So, I knew I could, but I didn’t necessarily know for sure that I would.”
Rielly observes of his fellow D-man: “Early last year, there was a moment where everyone realized just how important he is to our team. The way he plays in his own end, the way he can bring the puck out, the way that he skates is extremely valuable. His teammates are extremely happy for him. Each and every night I think more and more people are realizing just how important he is, just how good he is. But again, when you go back to last year and the year before that, I think it’s just all hard work.”
This has turned into the shank of a late-blossoming career that had often seemed beyond Holl’s grasp, through a protracted fermenting in the minors. Holl admits he never had a Plan B, despite a university degree in finance and marketing. It was always NHL or bust. Now he’s busted out.
In a hamlet small enough that everybody knows everybody, Holl claims to have no boldface status as a Maple Leaf in Tonka Bay. “Nah, Jake Gardiner is from the same hometown. He made it first, so he’s the bigger celebrity.
“I like to be incognito.”
Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno
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