‘KILLER’ COMPANY
New Leaf Dave Bolland takes Gilmour comparison in stride.
Toronto • For Dave Bolland, it is difficult to say what was more surprising: having Don Cherry compare you to Doug Gilmour on Hockey
Night In Canada or finding instant chemistry with a player who was once a hated rival.
Both are something that he never would have expected. Then again, everything about coming home and playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs — a team that the Mimico native grew up cheering for — has been “a little out there.” And yet, the transition has been seamless.
Bolland, who was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks six days after scoring the winning goal in the Stanley Cup final, has been every bit the two-way centre that the Leafs spent last season searching for. He has provided offence, with two goals and one assist. He has provided defence, killing penalties and shutting down the other team’s top line. And he has formed an unlikely relationship with former Canucks winger Mason Raymond, proving that rats and roadrunners can get along when they are wearing the same jersey.
“We’ve had some huge battles,” Bolland said of Raymond, who has two goals and two assists. “I’m probably the one who’s disliked in Vancouver over the past years, so with [Raymond] I think we’ve played pretty hard against each other.
“It’s different in hockey. One day you’re against each other and the next thing you know you’re sitting beside him in the room and you’re best friends and you’re on the same line.”
With David Clarkson serving a 10-game suspension and Nikolai Kulemin out for two weeks with an ankle injury, Bolland and the speedy Raymond have stepped up. In three games, they have combined for four goals and seven points and along with Joffrey Lupul have become a pseudo second line for the Leafs.
“We put them together in training camp and we had [Spencer] Abbott with them and I thought they were as good of a line as we had in training camp as far as what they were doing,” head coach Randy Carlyle said. “Not so much from an offence standpoint, but they had the puck and they knew where one another were on the ice and they made plays.
“So that was a stroke of luck, more than anything. Have we created a Bolland and Mason Raymond partnership, as we have with [Tyler] Bozak and [Phil] Kessel? Maybe. Maybe not.”
Whoever Bolland plays with this season, you can bet that Carlyle will get the most out of him. After all, he has already become Toronto’s Mr. Everything, a player who gets doubleshifted when the Leafs are protecting a one-goal lead and who gets a top-six role when the offence is not clicking.
“I think his defensive game is something,” Clarkson said. “I think he does well in a lot of areas on the ice. I think him and Raymond have really found something together where they seem to be finding each other on the ice.”
Carlyle said Bolland was a player he noticed while coaching against him in Anaheim, because he was a pain-inthe-neck pest who regularly matched up against Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry but could also hurt you offensively. So when Leafs were thinking of trading for Bolland this summer, Carlyle immediately gave the green light.
“When he has the two Stanley Cups as part of his resumé, it’s pretty easy to say yes to the player,” Carlyle said. “And then you’re around him and you watch how professional he is and how hard he works … he doesn’t go to the back of the line. He goes to the front of the line.”
By doing that, Bolland has received more ice and more accolades. But whatever his role with the Leafs, he is not thinking of being the next Doug Gilmour or having his name dropped on Hockey
Night In Canada. He just wants to help the team win like he did in Chicago.
“We had a lot of guys [in Chicago] who did their jobs and did the right things to win,” Bolland said. “Here it could be a different thing for myself … if it’s scoring, it’s scoring. If it’s playing against their top lines and shutting them down, then that’s it. Whatever happens on a given night, I’m going to try and help the team to win.”