“Dave Bolland looks like he’s got a bit of serial killer in him.”
An employee of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment has just met one of the hockey team’s newest faces at the Buds’ annual golf tournament in September. This is his initial assessment. The comparison is—important to note—made with fondness and excitement at the prospect of a Bolland-bolstered third line. A serial killer of penalties, to be sure.
Not saying he has a “dark passenger,” but if he did, he’d probably be sloppy about it; Bolland is no Dexter. There is a certain abandon to his game—and we’re not just talking about his malformed, pond-seeking golf swing. This is a guy who thrives on dirty work and ugly assignments: grinding in the corners, throwing his body into that contested space in front of the goal, scrapping for draws and shutting down the opposition’s best forward. Even on the bench, the player looks a little reckless, his eyes darting about, his loose chinstrap dangling low as a neck chain. After scoring 2013’s Stanley Cup-winning goal, he dropped an f-bomb during his post-game national TV interview.
He’s Leafs coach Randy Carlyle’s type of player, the kind of guy Mikhail Grabovski would never be. Once Tyler Bozak was signed long-term and Grabovski bought out, Toronto sought experience, toughness and winning—hallmarks of Bolland’s resumé in Chicago. It should be no surprise that in fellow centre Nazem Kadri’s prove-it year, Carlyle has already tapped Bolland, bumping him at times for second-line duties in close games.
Bolland was born in Mimico, Ont., where he cut his first strides in a rink just “a stumble down the street” from the Leafs’ Etobicoke practice facility. A scorer in minor hockey, Bolland was a first-round draftee into the Ontario Hockey League, where he joined the London Knights. After he scored 37 goals in his sophomore season with London, the Blackhawks drafted him in the second round in 2004. Bolland had an unceremonious debut in 2006, playing just one NHL game against the Canucks, and then rose from the AHL Rockford IceHogs in 2007–08 to score 17 points for Chicago in 39 games played in his rookie campaign. On a team full of point-getters, Bolland was pushed to expand his repertoire. Checking, taking faceoffs, special teams — Bolland proved to be a team guy and was rewarded with steadily increased ice time over his first four years.
Bolland doesn’t care where they put him, just let him do the things that earned him the nickname “the Rat” for his knack for pestering his opponents. Fellow Ontario product Ken Linseman would be proud.
“Whether it’s second line or third line, I’m willing to play anywhere to make the team go far,” Bolland says. “That’s the main thing.”
But Bolland isn’t all screens and dump-in pursuits. There’s a reward for his lunchbox role. He doesn’t shoot often, but when he does, Bolland frequently jams pucks in the net. In two separate seasons, he scored 19 goals with Chicago. And despite his depth-line status, Bolland routinely ranked among the Blackhawks’ top three in shooting percentage; last season he scored on 15.2 percent of his attempts, a mark only snipers Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews bettered.
And Bolland’s productivity jumps when it matters most. Through Friday, the 27-year-old centre has averaged 0.57 points per game in 334 regular-season games. That rate leaps to 0.64 points per game in the playoffs. Why? For one, coaches trust him. Trust equals playing time. Secondly, Bolland scores on so many of his shots not because he’s a marksman but because his shots are high-percentage and in-close: tips, rebounds, net-crashing snaps. The kind of necessary but not necessarily pretty goals that win games in spring.
None was greater or more timely than the one with 58.3 seconds left on the clock in game six of the 2013 Stanley Cup final. When stellar Boston netminder Tukka Rask couldn’t gather a point-shot rebound fast enough, Bolland pounced in the blue paint and won his team the championship. He flung off his gloves and accepted the hugs.
“It’s one of the greatest moments in the game—scoring one of those goals,” Bolland says. Even with a summer to think about it, he admits it’s still impossible to articulate the feeling of that goal. “It was a whirlwind, turning it into two Stanley Cups [in Chicago]. The most important thing for me coming here is bringing leadership. Going far in the playoffs and winning two Cups, I need to take that leadership here.”
A Stanley Cup champion twice over in Chicago, Bolland the Leaf brought a Stanley Cup parade to the west side of Toronto this summer. Jinx? Bolland doesn’t think so.
Through a hookup from a mutual friend, he then brought the Cup to see a certain Toronto rap star’s studio.
“Drake. That was fun. He was ecstatic to see it.” Bolland says it was the highlight of his day with the Cup. “Most of the guys there were all hockey fans and all Leaf fans, so to see them with their eyes wide open was cool.” But the guy who performed at the 2012 NHL All-star Game refused to sip white wine spritzer from the hallowed mug.
“He didn’t even touch it,” Bolland says. “He’s superstitious. But he took some pictures.”
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Bolland is entering the final season of a five-year contract that will pay him $3.75 million this year. On being traded away (for three draft picks) from a championship team favoured to repeat, he says, “I sorta knew something was coming. But once I found out it was Toronto, I was a little sad but a little happy to find out I was coming back home. After that, my phone was just going off the hook. I couldn’t get a call in,” he smiles.
The happy-to-be-here rhetoric rings mostly true with Bolland, who left Chicago on the highest note possible. No one wants to be discarded a champion, even if it’s good business, but if you have to go, coming home to a playoff team is the best scenario.
At an early press availability, Bolland’s confidence in his new club may have gotten carried away: “I think this team is a contender. I don’t think this team is that far from what Chicago did last year.”
His expectations are high, but this is a guy used to winning, a guy who thrives on beating the best. He names Joe Thornton and the Sedin twins as his favourite players to check.
“It always gets you into the game when you have that role. If you come out light, these are the best players in the league—they’re gonna take it to ya.”
Bolland can take it to them as well, and Carlyle wants the returning hometown guy not named David Clarkson to play to his strengths. Whether Bolland’s strengths will be showcased more on the third line or the second is in flux.
“We’re very, very happy that he’s on our hockey club,” Carlyle says. “When you have the quality of a player like David Bolland, you look at the two Stanley Cups. His role with Chicago this year was more in a third-line role, but when they won the Cup previously he was a second-line centre.”
Bolland already has the date — Oct. 19 — circled for his return to Chicago to face the team that didn’t want him.
“I can’t wait to go against Tazer,” he says of the Blackhawks captain.
A sly grin that could be branded Serial Killer Lite creeps across his face. Somewhere in Illinois, Jonathan Toews shudders.