Nov 1, 2018
Holl finally gets his shot against the Stars
The Maple Leafs defenceman, who has been a healthy scratch for all 12 games this season, will make his debut against Dallas on Thursday night, Kristen Shilton writes.
TORONTO – Justin Holl has been a healthy scratch for all 12 Maple Leafs games this season, but that streak will come to an end Thursday when the defenceman makes his season debut against the visiting Dallas Stars.
“They had posted the lineup yesterday and I saw [Travis Dermott] and I were the third pair,” Holl said after an optional morning skate on Thursday. “I had a brief conversation with [head coach Mike Babcock]. He said, ‘Just play. Don’t worry about it.’ So that’s the plan.”
Holl had no expectations about when his time would come with the Leafs after a conversation with Babcock in training camp where the coach explained that Holl would have to wait his turn.
The process was frustrating, but Holl never lost faith things would eventually work out. All he needed was an opening, which came when Babcock decided to start managing the minutes of defenceman Igor Ozhiganov.
Skating in his first NHL campaign, Ozhiganov has played 10 of 12 games on the right side of Toronto’s third pairing opposite Dermott. But the 26-year-old is coming off seven seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League where he never played more than 59 regular-season contests in a year, and Babcock is easing him into the NHL’s 82-game grind.
“I told Holl that I didn’t have an opportunity for him right away because we were looking at other guys,” Babcock explained. “He had spent, I don’t know, about 100 years in the minors already. Real good person, so we said we’d get to his opportunity when we had the chance. Now he gets an opportunity.”
It wasn’t exactly an entire century Holl spent trying to crack the NHL, but his journey has been an undeniably slow build.
It was just nine months ago that Holl, 26, made his NHL debut over a two-game emergency recall from the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies, where he scored two goals on his first two NHL shots.
Even now, Holl can't help but joke about the feat.
“I used to think I might never score every game, now I think I might,” Holl laughed. “Just kidding.”
The timing of that first recall – during the Leafs’ annual dad’s trip, with his father flying to Toronto just in time to see him play – made Holl a popular topic around the league. But before that, the native Minnesotan was a career minor-leaguer.
His four seasons playing for the University of Minnesota gave way to Holl spending a year with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel and a couple games with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs before the Marlies’ picked him up ahead of the 2015-16 season.
Holl established himself as a top-pairing defenceman over the next three seasons in Toronto’s farm system, a stretch culminating in the franchise’s first Calder Cup victory last June. With that, plus 20 goals and 48 assists in 192 games, on his resume, Holl earned the Leafs’ eighth defenceman spot out of training camp last month instead of being put on waivers.
The waiting game has been far from ideal, but it's also a long way from the toughest times of Holl's career.
“It’s tough [waiting for a chance], but I’ve gone through way more difficult things,” Holl said. “I mean I played in [the ECHL] for a year. At this point, making it to the NHL is a huge hurdle. [But] I’m not comfortable just being here. Being here was the next step, and then obviously the next step is finding a way to play every night.”
That’s a challenge Dermott faces now too. He’ll be returning to the Leafs’ lineup as well on Thursday, after missing two games with the flu and then being replaced by Martin Marincin in Monday’s 3-1 loss to Calgary.
“Dermy was sick, and he needed to do some work,” Babcock said. “He’s done his work. Dermy is a guy who can move the puck, and he can help us.”
Holl believes he can help, too. All kidding aside about his pristine shooting percentage, Holl said his focus is on playing to his own standards rather than being weighed down by anyone else’s expectations.
And unlike the last time he played an NHL game, there will be no family in attendance on Thursday for Holl. It will just be a normal game night; something he hopes will eventually become a regular routine.
“Obviously I want to play well and that’s important to me, but it’s just another hockey game. I’ve played a bunch of these throughout my career,” Holl said. “So I’m prepared, I’m ready to go.”
Maple Leafs projected lineup vs. Dallas
Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Marleau-Kadri-Kapanen
Johnsson-Lindholm-Brown
Ennis-Gauthier-Leivo
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Holl
Andersen starts
Sparks