Leafs: Holland feels he’s ready to break through
Two years ago almost to the day, Peter Holland and the Maple Leafs had a game to remember.
It was Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013, a cold and snowy night. Inside the Air Canada Centre, the Leafs started to snowball. Behind Holland’s two goals and an assist, the Leafs routed the highpowered Chicago Blackhawks 7-3.
Holland was named first star of the game. It was also Randy Carlyle’s 100th game as Leafs coach as he improved his record to 49-40-11.
It was a high point that season for both Holland and Carlyle. Holland scored just once in 27 more games that season while Carlyle was 13 months away from getting fired.
“I remember,” Holland said this week.
“I was playing with (Joffrey Lupul) and (Mason) Raymond.”
The line combined for 11 points that night, with Lupul scoring twice as well. Holland kicks himself a little thinking back. He nearly had a hat trick. “I was on a breakaway.” He shot wide. That was the last time Holland, now 24, scored more than once in an NHL game and the last time the Leafs rolled up seven goals.
Since his breakout game, Holland has seen different linemates, been a healthy scratch, spent time in the minors and gone through a painful episode of lace bite, an injury that leads to inflammation of the tendons on the top of the foot and ankle.
Things may be looking up for Holland. With four goals and six assists in 23 games, he considers himself to be a more complete player.
Head coach Mike Babcock has moved him from centre to the wing to play on a line with Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov, where he’s getting more minutes.
That’s why the six-foot-two, 194pound Holland shrugs off the significance of Dec. 14, 2013.
“I expect to have many more games like that,” he said.
No slouches: Under Carlyle, the Leafs would sag on the bench when the team fell behind, especially early. A new regime brings a new attitude. Hanging your head is discouraged under Babcock, who talks a lot about attitude and confidence level.
“I think the attitude and the atmosphere is way better,” Babcock said this week. “Eventually, that will start adding up in the win column. Anybody in any walk of life wants to feel good about what they’re doing.”
Prove People Wrong: Top scoring forward James van Riemsdyk likes to prove people wrong, and he feels so strongly about it he wears a wrist band with that slogan.
Van Riemsdyk took it personally when the Philadelphia Flyers traded him to Toronto on June 23, 2012 — five years after making him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft.
He wanted to prove the Flyers were wrong in shipping him out, and he’s been doing a good job of it, scoring 27 and 30 goals in his last two full seasons in Toronto.