The NHL Redux: Peter Holland, discarded jerseys and putting out a hellfire

Peter Holland has witnessed the carnage from all vantage points.

He was on the bench when the first one hit. He sat by the training table as a counterfeit "Phaneuf" crumpled on the ice in Winnipeg. He saw the polyester fall from the pressbox as the Hurricanes augmented the Maple Leaf misery.

Yet, Holland's breadth of perspective hasn't altered his scope. 

"The jersey and the logo is something that's really sacred in the dressing room," Holland told theScore. "You don't see a jersey on the floor - guys don't step on the logo in the room.

"To see our fans throwing it on the ice in the middle of our game and in the middle of play is disappointing, but the fans pay good money to watch us play. They have the right to voice their opinion, but unfortunately that's one we find disrespectful."

Ah, the tossing of the sweater. The once incognito, always moronic and increasingly dangerous form of fan protest aimed to galvanize an otherwise lifeless crowd while sticking it to the suits upstairs.  

It was stolen (yes, Oilers fans stooped first), and initially displayed out of haste, but has morphed into an ostentatious, hey-look-at-me undertaking that neatly illustrates the perpetual discontent felt by the hard-luck Toronto sports fan. 

The sentiment isn't exclusive to the Air Canada Centre. It's felt on the streets, on the bench, in the boardroom, opposing rinks and maybe to a more significant degree on the road to recovery for Holland, whose hands are tied.

"It's sorta like how coaches get frustrated," Holland explained. "They tell you all the right messages, but they can't go out there and physically do it.

"When you're sidelined like this it's tough - you can't go out there and help them. They're working hard, and you can see that, but the bounces just aren't going their way."

Nothing has gone their way.

Toronto has just three victories in its last 17 tries, and has won just a single game since Holland departed with a reported upper-body bang-up suffered just before the calendar turned. 

Now, let's get one thing straight. Holland is not the first-line center the Maple Leafs have been aching for since Phil Kessel arrived in Hogtown. To that, Holland also owns possession metrics and goals-for rates that have contributed to the Maple Leafs' sag below the league median. But it's also quite clear that he's missed.

Whether that's an indictment on the team's center-ice depth, the validity of a few select advanced stats or simply my intelligence, it's just another task inherited by interim head coach Peter Horachek. (The latter excluded.)

The hellfire in Toronto burns deeper than the 200-foot game Holland prides himself on providing. The blaze, spreading much faster than it can be contained, offers no easy solution. And these discarded jerseys? Well, they might as well be Molotov cocktails. 

But what's been lost is the admiration Maple Leaf players have displayed for their new coach. And although Holland has yet to serve directly under Horachek, he believes the interim boss is the right man to stop incendiary objects from flying onto the ice. 

"Everyone really respects Pete. We all have a lot of time for him. When he was an assistant, he had a bit of a different role. He spent a little more time with the guys in the room. I think he brings positivity to the group, I think he brings composure. He never seems to get too down."

The initial reviews, at least from a level-headed perspective, have been positive despite the Maple Leafs having lost significant ground since Randy Carlyle was fired. But moral victories, and most notably Horachek's ability to cut down the Maple Leafs' abysmal shots-against totals, won't stop the looting. 

His effectiveness will be poked, prodded and picked apart. His mettle tested at every turn. He'll draw unfair comparisons to Mike Babcock, will always have to look over his shoulder and will take on criticism beset from a long line of failed executives.

This isn't going to be easy. And the players won't know the half of it.

"I try to avoid all that stuff that's going on," Holland said. "It's a bit of a circus here in Toronto."

Yup.

The Next 48

Team Foligno will look to offset the obvious disadvantage bestowed on the home side at the 60th NHL All-Star Game by having a strong draft Friday night.

Nick will have to put allegiances aside to matchup with his captain counterpart, Jonathan Toews, who will undoubtedly approach the competition with a serious tone.

Kessel will look to avoid being "Mr. Irrelevant" for the second time in three drafts but could be primed for last pick once again, having scored seven fewer goals this season and failing to thrill scouts with his game shape. 

Once the teams are settled, the players who avoided injury in the lead-up to the star-studded event will try their very best to entertain dressed like tall cans of energy drink.

Enjoy the game!

The Pylon

Philadelphia Flyers tough guy Zac Rinaldo was damn proud of himself after leaping at the head and injuring one of the league's premier puck-moving defenseman, Kris Letang, on Monday night. 

"Yeah, I changed the whole game, man," he said jovially. "F---, who knows what the game would have been like if I didn’t do what I did?"

Too late for an All-Star nod or?

Parting Shots

1) Aaron Ekblad and Johnny Gaudreau are now both All Stars, but that's not the only commonality they share. They were the first two subjects featured on the Redux. Coincidence? Not a chance. 

2) It was pointed out this week that Nail Yakupov and Alex Galchenyuk each scored 33 goals in their first 157 NHL games. It's rather astounding how those two players are viewed under such different light.

3) Jakub Voracek leads the NHL in scoring at the break, and the NHL's top two goal-scorers, Rick Nash and Tyler Seguin, hail from a certain suburb of Toronto that I may, or may not have an affiliation with.

4) List of players who have played in just as many All-Star Games as Sidney Crosby: Chris Nilan, Mike Komisarek, Rick DiPietro, Jason Blake and Yanic Perreault.

5) Jarome Iginla passed Mike Bossy on the all-time goals list with No. 574 this week. With two-plus seasons to go, Iginla has a legitimate shot to eclipse Joe Sakic in an Avs jersey.

6) Speaking of the Avalanche, Patrick Roy's goaltenders rank fifth in save percentage, but the team has conceded more goals than 21 other teams.

7) With the second-ranked power play and sixth-best kill, the Red Wings boast the league's top special teams and are just a decimal behind in the race for Corsi glory. 

8) Ken Hitchcock moved into 5th-place in the all-time coaching wins list last week. He will need 11 seasons of 50-plus wins to catch Scotty Bowman. He'd be quite old.

9) Meanwhile, it looks like another legend will have his mark will stay short of 700. Martin Brodeur has extended his leave from the Blues while sitting on 691 wins. 

10) With over 1500 hits at the break, the Kings have doled out more than double that of the Blackhawks.