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Justin Holl

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Jimmy Firecracker said:
Loved this love he pulled at the offensive blue line.

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I remember that play, it led to a chance too I believe.

He stands out every night in a positive way. He is by far our best defenceman in terms of chances for and against.

There is no question in my mind that his pairing is the top pairing, and that there is a good chance he is better than Brodie moving forward.

We really, reeeally need to see some better hockey from Rielly and Brodie. The contrast when they are on to Holl's pairing is stark. Last night Holl spent a shift breaking up two entries from JG's line and it was followed up by Rielly and Brodie running around against CAL's 3rd line for over a minute in our zone.
 
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I wonder what a pairing of Rielly-Holl could do for an extended period of time. Allows Muzzin-Brodie to be one of the best 2nd pairing's in hockey as well.
 
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Jimmy Firecracker said:
Loved this move he pulled at the offensive blue line.

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it was a confident play, by a player who is playing confident hockey. It could have been a bit on the riskier side by pivoting toward the defending forward, but judging by what I have seen from Holl this year, I really think he intended to carry that puck out of the zone initially. A handful of our forwards were regrouping/changing and it looked as though he was trying to accommodate that. And only because the forward gave him that gap to make that move on the inside, did he take it. You can see his eyes looking at the forwards stick on the wrong side of the puck, almost anticipating an over sauce pass. And at the last second he pivots inside of his man to make a play. He took what was given to him, super confident play, super smart play
 
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Critical91 said:
I remember that play, it led to a chance too I believe.

He stands out every night in a positive way. He is by far our best defenceman in terms of chances for and against.

There is no question in my mind that his pairing is the top pairing, and that there is a good chance he is better than Brodie moving forward.

We really, reeeally need to see some better hockey from Rielly and Brodie. The contrast when they are on to Holl's pairing is stark. Last night Holl spent a shift breaking up two entries from JG's line and it was followed up by Rielly and Brodie running around against CAL's 3rd line for over a minute in our zone.
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Our worst breakdowns have come with Rielly-Brodie on the ice. And while they’ve been better recently and they’re great at moving the puck, last night with Gaudreau and that other Flame alone in front is just one example of that pairing making a critical mistake leading to a goal.
 
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Jimmy Firecracker said:
Our worst breakdowns have come with Rielly-Brodie on the ice. And while they’ve been better recently and they’re great at moving the puck, last night with Gaudreau and that other Flame alone in front is just one example of that pairing making a critical mistake leading to a goal.
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Other than a couple of soft clear attempts, Brodie has been doing his job IMO, not nearly as risky or Gardiner-like as people tried to sell him. I really want to see him with someone defensively stable before making a judgement on him. He should be the puck moving half of the pairing, not the guy trying to cover for a 4th F.
 
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I think Reilly and Brodie will eventually get it. This stretch of 8 games is essentially their preseason. new partners, heavy minutes, high responsibilities = recipe for sloppy. individually they have looked fine IMO. They just seem out of sync. Especially below the goal line. it seems they never want to make that easy D to D pass. I am confident it will come
 
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I gotta give Holl some love he is playing way way above his punching weight right now ... playing with our best defender in Muzzy is really helping him a ton ... so give him his dues ... but he flat out does not have da skills of Rielly or Brodie ... but his positioning has improved, his puck strength has improved, his ability to go with puck has improved, his reads on rush are much better etc ... he is getting better defensively every game and that says a lot about him ... it is damn hard for a guy with 6th/7th skills to become a top 4 staple ... and he is doing it with better hockey sense .. congrats ... and well earned
 
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JT AM da real deal said:
I gotta give Holl some love he is playing way way above his punching weight right now ... playing with our best defender in Muzzy is really helping him a ton ... so give him his dues ... but he flat out does not have da skills of Rielly or Brodie ... but his positioning has improved, his puck strength has improved, his ability to go with puck has improved, his reads on rush are much better etc ... he is getting better defensively every game and that says a lot about him ... it is damn hard for a guy with 6th/7th skills to become a top 4 staple ... and he is doing it with better hockey sense .. congrats ... and well earned
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and it is exactly why you don't trade younger D because quite frankly no one could ever have predicted this growth ... we have too often made da Carlyle mistake and we can't afford to keep screwing up with our younger D men
 
Muzz unquestionably carried Holl last year. no if's, and's or but's. Muzz was by far our best defenseman last year. But I honestly feel like Holl has been carrying Muzz a bit this year. Muzz's gaps have not been as tight as they were a year ago, and he has made some panic plays with the puck on his stick all year. Holl has been the grounding presence for that pairing as of yet in my mind.
 
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If he keeps playing like this the Leafs should protect the big 4 up front and then our top 4.
 
Rielly and holl are way better skaters then there line counter parts. If that becomes a pairing brodie and muzzin would be a Hella slow pairing.

I like what we have now. Rielly just needs to be better.
 
jaric1862 said:
If he keeps playing like this the Leafs should protect the big 4 up front and then our top 4.
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Quite possible. It'd look like this:

Forwards
Protected: Matthews, Marner, JT, Nylander
Possible Seattle selections: Kerfoot, Hyman (UFA)

Dmen
Protected: Rielly, Brodie, Muzzin, Holl
Possible Seattle selections: Dermott

Goalies
Protected: Campbell
Possible Seattle selections: Andersen (UFA)

I'm thinking Seattle wouldn't "waste" a selection on a pending UFA, who might bolt anyways, like Hyman/Andersen. Even if we're going to resign them, we'd be smart to have a deal agreed upon in principle, but not signed, until after the expansion draft (expansion draft is July 23-24, free agency opens July 28). So it'd likely be down to Kerfoot and Dermott - probably Dermott. Leaving them exposed probably is a better call than leaving Holl exposed, especially given our team needs - we have no internal replacement for what Holl brings, but Sandin is a good Dermott replacement.
 
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Seeing Holl in the play ins made me think his strong play early last season was an aberration but he's been even better so far this year. Very impressive.
 
I wonder what his upside is? I still feel more comfortable when he's more defensively oriented as opposed to pushing the offense as I said in the OP, but is this as good as it gets or does he follow a Jeff Petry trajectory and start integrating a strong two way game with surprising amounts of offense? Wild to think he's basically a lock to be protected in the expansion draft...
 
ponder said:
Agreed with liking the current pairings, but Brodie is a very good skater, better than Holl.
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I disagree. Brodie may have higher iq. But holl can absolutely skate and skeep up with other faster players. Both also just happen to use there sticks and as well.
 
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Still bugs me that Babcock could have been playing this guy instead of Zaitsev/Polak and decided to not even bother taking a look.

Babcock, man.
 
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