Gavin McKenna benched by Jim Hiller in Leafs' OT loss
TLDR: Gavin McKenna played a career-low 6:36 in Toronto's 5-4 overtime loss to Buffalo, sitting from midway through the 2nd period on, and Jim Hiller put the benching on himself.
The tell came before overtime even started: the No. 1 pick had not seen a shift since the middle of the 2nd period.
To OT, tied 4-4. Shots on goal 32-30 Buffalo. 11-4 in the third period. No shifts for McKenna since midway point of the second. #Leafs
McKenna finished with 9 shifts. His last one ended at 10:20 of the 2nd period. He did not play in the 3rd period and he did not play in overtime. He also stayed on the bench the whole time, so this was not a guy getting checked in the quiet room. A healthy 18-year-old with the whole hockey world watching his first month just sat there for the last 30-plus minutes of a game the Leafs ended up losing.
Hiller's explanation came down to penalties. Toronto took 2 in the back half of the 2nd, Oliver Ekman-Larsson at 14:35 and Morgan Rielly at 18:07. With the penalty kill running, McKenna's line got skipped, then came intermission, and once the 3rd started he never got back into the rotation.
Jim Hiller on Gavin McKenna's limited TOI: "The big thing is penalties. He doesn’t get to play, we get into the [intermission], now he hasn’t played for 30 some odd minutes. We talked about getting him out in the third & then I guess it didn’t just happen, but that’s on me."
Credit where it's due: Hiller didn't hide behind anything, and he said straight up that it was his decision and he probably should have gotten McKenna out early in the 3rd. That is still a strange answer, though. Penalty-kill stretches happen every night, and coaches don't usually forget a forward exists for a full period and then some. Either the kid got buried for something Hiller isn't saying, or the bench really did lose track of its most talked-about player in a tie game. Neither is a great look.
The beat writers in the room didn't exactly buy it, and the jokes came quickly. One reporter compared getting a straight answer out of Hiller to sitting in cross-town traffic.
Yes! The Jimi Hiller Experience Getting a straight answer is like CROSS-TOWN TRAAAAAAFFFFFFICCCCCC
Here's why it matters. McKenna isn't some 4th-liner fighting for a roster spot. He went No. 1 overall, he's carrying a city's expectations from day 1, and his ice time is now its own storyline every night. According to The Hockey News, Hiller said afterward that McKenna has been mature about reduced minutes, and Auston Matthews said he expects the kid to use this as fuel. Fine. But 6:36 in a 1-goal game Toronto let slip to Buffalo is going to hang around this coaching staff until McKenna's minutes go back up.
What to watch next is simple: the next box score. If McKenna is back to his normal minutes, the "that's on me" story holds up. If he's stuck in single digits again, the penalty explanation won't last long in Toronto.
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