It's not illiberal. It entirely depends on how you view it whether it is liberal or illiberal.
People are free to criticize something and exercised their liberal right to do so. Holtby chose to respond to the criticism in an appropriate way. It would be illiberal to not allow Holtby to wear the mask (especially because it is not promoting hatred or using racist symbols or anything, this is of course not the intent). That isn't happening though. I also think that there is a degree to how important certain things are within a culture and a degree to which they have been oppressed.
Considering First Nations groups were heavily oppressed and efforts were made to strip them of culture, many people don't think it is ok to 'borrow' or 'steal' these aspects of their culture. "As long as the artist is being respectful" is fine by me. There were some ways in which this wasn't respectful and lacked consideration. Was it Chief Wahoo or calling your team a slur? No. But also, who decides what is respectful? The article I linked had pretty even-keeled, reasonable quotes about how some First Nations people didn't consider it respectful.
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