Holland has Seinfeld-esque quality
A mainstay on Twitter, he’s funny, weird, philosophical
Alot of athletes tweet, but few of them can match the level of sophistication reached by Canadiens rookie Patrick Holland.
Upon arriving in Montreal this week from the Hamilton Bulldogs, Holland told reporters his ambition as a youngster was to be comedian Jerry Seinfeld, whose hit TV show went into syndication when Holland was 7.
I’m not sure how much Holland was influenced by watching years of reruns, but there’s definitely a Seinfeldesque quality to his contributions to the twittersphere.
“I see the world the way I see it and I’m always thinking about things,” Holland said. “There are certain scenarios, and I enjoy it. I have fun with it, maybe that makes me part crazy. I don’t know.”
Holland ponders some of the mysteries of the universe with tweets like:
“Does Michael Phelps sleep in a waterbed?”
“How close are we to All Dressed chip flavoured carrots?”
There are astute social observations like:
“Bouncers are like babysitters for adults.”
“It’s easy to fall asleep to the rhythmic sound of a good ping pong match.”
“Tim Horton’s muffins have a really good muffin top muffin bottom ratio.”
And then there are philosophical moments: “It’s one of those sit down in the bath tub with the shower on and ask yourself if free will exists kind of mornings.”
Holland said that idea originated with an article about free will that was given to him by Bulldogs teammate and Princeton graduate Kyle Hagel.
“It kinda blew my mind,” Holland said.
The American Hockey League team was in San Antonio and Holland used part of an off-day to sit in a tub with the shower running.
Holland is able to laugh at himself.
When he was playing with the Bulldogs, he made a mistake that ended up on TSN as the Worst Play of the Day.
“Not sure how I feel about earning the TSN Worst Play of the Day last night but tv time is tv time,” he tweeted.
A day later, Holland added: “I’m really glad all of my Facebook friends are there to let me know I was the TSN worst play of the day in case I’m not already aware.”
During training camp with the Canadiens, a fan tweeted: “Patrick Holland is terrible.”
That elicited this Twitter response: “Damn, that’s the opposite of what I want to be.”
Holland was good enough to earn a promotion to the National Hockey League. He and Michael Blunden were summoned from Hamilton this week after Daniel Brière suffered a concussion and Brandon Prust injured his right shoulder. Neither player is expected back soon, which means Holland has an oppor- tunity to make an impression on the Canadiens’ brass.
The 6-foot, 185-pound forward made his debut Tuesday night against the Edmonton Oilers and was solid in a limited role. He played a shade over six minutes, won his only faceoff and left the rookie jitters behind after his first shift.
“He played good,” coach Michel Therrien said. “We gave him some time on the penalty-kill and he did a good job.”
Said Holland: “When we were coming up here, (Blunden) told me to live every day like it was your last,” Holland said. “He said you never knew when (the injured players) were coming back or if they were going to call up somebody new. I’m trying to come to every practice and make it look like I belong in this league. Obviously, when guys come back there’s not going to be much room, but I’ll be ready for that and then it’s more development in Hamilton.”
But first, Holland is looking forward to games Thursday against Anaheim and Saturday against San Jose. His parents — dad’s a retired oncologist and mom is a family physician — flew in from Lethbridge, Alta., for his NHL debut.
“They’re staying through the weekend and I hope they can see me in a few more games,” Holland said.