Justin Holl Cannot Play Another Minute In The Playoffs

[CabanaBoy5]

I don't understand Keefe and that excuse for Holl. Virtually everyone thinks that Keefe is gone if they lose this series, yet he's hitched his wagon to Justin frikken Holl? By any metrics Holl has been atrocious this entire series. That energy-sucking stupid attempt to hit Hagel and the almost comical loss of stick and nowhere near the net first goal, was probably the key to the game. And most of HF knew this was going to happen at some point.

Yeah, Samsonov shouldn't have allowed that second goal under any circumstances, but I knew as soon as Holl turned the wrong way that he was going to be beat. If Keefe knows anything about hockey, he should see that Tampa is targetting Holl. Shots go into his corner and they pressure him because he panics. His board work is awful and he doesn't pivot to the proper side when he is engaged. It hasn't helped that Gio has looked awful.

 

[MapleLeafs77]

Honestly, this puts Lily in a tough spot. Hard to insert a player into this series so late. Lily should have been inserted since game 2. Asking a lot to insert him now into this tough series.

 

[hamzarocks]

B

I tried to block this out of my memory..... thanks for the reminder lol.

The only thing with this is if we have McCann and keep him at 5M we dont get RoR or someone else

Muzzin going on LTIR allowed the moves we made to occur too

Holl is a bottom paiirng D-man whose playing poorly right now and is unlucky but he makes 2M only

Muzzin or McCann is around 5.5M

Would veen super hard to fit it unless another piece is off the roster (cant say Murray as we didnt dxpect him to be this injury prone and Sammy had major concerns when we signed him)

Honestly I wouldn't mind both Gio and Holl sitting game 6 for Gustaffson and Lilijgren

Gio has been low key ass and at fault for a lot of goals too. Hes 40ish so to be expected but still

 

[AvroArrow]

Real question for you all

Our top 6 scored zero goals for 57 minutes last game.

Holl is a 6D, he sucks but he plays like a 6D

Why are we not asking more from our stars ? Why are we asking for so much from our worst D-man ? Yes he sucks I agree, but if our top 6 that's making like 50M scores a goal in the first 57 minutes of last nights game, we're having a different conversation here.

We didn't lose because of our #6 D man, we lost because our stars failed to convert and lost the battle to Vasilevsky.

 

[Notsince67]

The joke is Justin Holl

Side note, good on the reporter asking Keefe about Holl. However, unfortunately it will have the opposite effect. Holl will be right back out there for game 6 and will go -4 in 9 minutes. Keefe will be crying on the bench and Dubas will be drafting up Keefe's termination letter (meanwhile Shanahan will be writing up his message to Leaf fans about a search for a new GM).

Keefe

Honestly, this puts Lily in a tough spot. Hard to insert a player into this series so late. Lily should have been inserted since game 2. Asking a lot to insert him now into this tough series.

Just asking for better than 3ga in 12.5 minutes.

 

[GoonieFace]

Where's Dekes for Days at? Seems awfully quiet.

Extrapolating data from a spreadsheet to support the Leafs cause is painstaking work

 

[Oscar Peterson]

Worst part is it’s been plain to see how bad Holl is since he joined the team, many of us have been saying for years how much he drags the team down. -3 last night, out on the ice for every Tampa goal except the empty netter with 5 seconds left.

Weirdest thing is the cult of Holl fans who all season long try to gaslight people into thinking he’s actually a good D-man and we just don’t know how to watch defence properly. He was horrible last series and he’s been putrid this series. A few good shot blocks on the PK doesn’t compensate for the never ending string of low IQ plays and terrible decisions that is otherwise his game.

Maybe this rant is a little extra but I just can’t stand watching this guy play for us. And it’s so frustrating that we could realistically lose the series because of Keefe’s mind boggling obsession with him.

 

[Stephen]

yea Holl will be dressed in Game 6 lol

I think they definitely keep him in for continuity but I also wouldn’t mind if he was dressed in a crisp suit on Saturday.

 

[Jojalu]

14-2 Tampa with Holl on the ice
18-4 Leafs with Holl off the ice

Holl and Keefe have and will lose this series.

I mean...

Keefe can say all he wants about other people being on the ice but this is absurd.

And yes, not every goal can be directly attributed to Holl but this is not a coincidence.

This is enough evidence to warrant a change.

I really think they will go 11/7.

I don't hate the idea of Matthews, Marner, Nylander double shifting and playing 30 if it's a vlose game but how the hell can Lily be worse?

 

[Future]

Honestly, this puts Lily in a tough spot. Hard to insert a player into this series so late. Lily should have been inserted since game 2. Asking a lot to insert him now into this tough series.

How so? It literally cannot get any worse statistically. This is just an excuse.

Team has struggled moving the puck up the ice and getting quit exits from the backend, either from passing or skating the puck out. That is literally Liljegren’s specialty. That’s what he does…

Not to mention that the Gio-Liljegren pairing was really good for the vast majority of the season. Could help Gio’s game get back where it needs to be.

 

[Rob Brown]

14-2 Tampa with Holl on the ice
18-4 Leafs with Holl off the ice

Holl and Keefe have and will lose this series.

Massive, massive yikes.

 

[ruaware41]

Holl is literally re incarnating the spirit of Jake Gardiner. How does this not bother anyone?

 

[wc17]

I hope hope hope that this coaching staff has prepared Schenn to PK cause I’m pretty sure he can watch for that one timer to Stamkos to block it. At this point this is all that Holl is effective at.

Put Lily in with Gio who have been good together before and shelter them if you have to. This fascination with Holl is getting ridiculous (and this is coming from a semi fan of his).

 

[leafsfan5]

I've defended Holl in the past but he's been so bad there is 0 reason for him to be in the lineup. This is something we've seen since game 1, and now it costed us a chance to end the series

Have Giordano - Liljergen get sheltered bottom pair minutes and provide some more mobility in the backend

 

[Peasy]

That's 12 minutes too many...minus 3 for playing 12 minutes, my goodness...he had his ice time reduced in game 5 because he was crap from the start, but he shouldn't have been dressed in the first place...Lily is a much better dman.

Its even worse. -3 in basically 11 minutes cause he had 1:15 on the PK where he cant get a minus.

 

[ruaware41]

Simple rule:

No American defencemen who’s first name starts with J in the playoffs - ever. Make the trades to get rid of them before the trade deadline. We’ve learned from our history repeating itself .. I hope

 

[ToneDog]

If Keefe insists on playing Holl, maybe he pulls a Cooper and goes 11/7.

 

[ACC1224]

Real question for you all

Our top 6 scored zero goals for 57 minutes last game.

Holl is a 6D, he sucks but he plays like a 6D

Why are we not asking more from our stars ? Why are we asking for so much from our worst D-man ? Yes he sucks I agree, but if our top 6 that's making like 50M scores a goal in the first 57 minutes of last nights game, we're having a different conversation here.

We didn't lose because of our #6 D man, we lost because our stars failed to convert and lost the battle to Vasilevsky.

They can be better no doubt but the game is more difficult when 1) playing from behind as well as how 2) deflating soft goals can be to the Team.
Holl is 100% responsible for the last two points.

 

[Oscar Peterson]

Simple rule:

No American defencemen who’s first name starts with J in the playoffs - ever. Make the trades to get rid of them before the trade deadline. We’ve learned from our history repeating itself .. I hope

Especially if they’re from Minnesota.

 

[ToneDog]

They can be better no doubt but the game is more difficult when 1) playing from behind as well as how 2) deflating soft goals can be to the Team.
Holl is 100% responsible for the last two points.

Tampa seemed to recover from the muffin shots that got by Vasi. It is now or never for these p***yes.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Real question for you all

Our top 6 scored zero goals for 57 minutes last game.

Holl is a 6D, he sucks but he plays like a 6D

Why are we not asking more from our stars ? Why are we asking for so much from our worst D-man ? Yes he sucks I agree, but if our top 6 that's making like 50M scores a goal in the first 57 minutes of last nights game, we're having a different conversation here.

We didn't lose because of our #6 D man, we lost because our stars failed to convert and lost the battle to Vasilevsky.

There is so much wrong with how we're set up, it's hard to really pin it down. It's easier just to look at the obvious.

At the end of the day, very simply, 3 x 11mil forwards seem to be a huge issue. The cascading effect from that one issue results in multiple issues.

 

[ACC1224]

Tampa seemed to recover from the muffin shots that got by Vasi. It is now or never for these p***yes.

They also have far fewer demons in their closet.

 

[Pebble live]

Real question for you all

Our top 6 scored zero goals for 57 minutes last game.

Holl is a 6D, he sucks but he plays like a 6D

Why are we not asking more from our stars ? Why are we asking for so much from our worst D-man ? Yes he sucks I agree, but if our top 6 that's making like 50M scores a goal in the first 57 minutes of last nights game, we're having a different conversation here.

We didn't lose because of our #6 D man, we lost because our stars failed to convert and lost the battle to Vasilevsky.

Holl was walked multiple times last night.

He made a bad decision on the first goal and went for a big hit in the neutral zone and missed. Leading to the goal.

He was walked on the 2nd goal and turned in the wrong way to try and defend against the faster player. Sammy also played that incorrectly but Holl was exposed badly on 2 of the 3 goals. This isn't new either.

Matthews scored twice in the 3rd of game 4 to help take that game to OT and eventually the win.

The top 6 has been fine. The only guy I'm not crazy about up there right now been JT and his inability to execute / finish on his chances to score. He has 6 points in 5 games and is a -1. We do need more from him.

 

[ryno23]

I don't understand Keefe and that excuse for Holl. Virtually everyone thinks that Keefe is gone if they lose this series, yet he's hitched his wagon to Justin frikken Holl? By any metrics Holl has been atrocious this entire series. That energy-sucking stupid attempt to hit Hagel and the almost comical loss of stick and nowhere near the net first goal, was probably the key to the game. And most of HF knew this was going to happen at some point.

Yeah, Samsonov shouldn't have allowed that second goal under any circumstances, but I knew as soon as Holl turned the wrong way that he was going to be beat. If Keefe knows anything about hockey, he should see that Tampa is targetting Holl. Shots go into his corner and they pressure him because he panics. His board work is awful and he doesn't pivot to the proper side when he is engaged. It hasn't helped that Gio has looked awful.

has Gio looked awful due to Holl being awful. Gio and Lilly would be a better pair.

 

[ToneDog]

There is so much wrong with how we're set up, it's hard to really pin it down. It's easier just to look at the obvious.

At the end of the day, very simply, 3 x 11mil forwards seem to be a huge issue. The cascading effect from that one issue results in multiple issues.

Does not help when one of those 3 $11m players is not playing like one and the other two are not McDavid and MacKinnon.