- Gavin McKenna says Jim Hiller told him the benching had nothing to do with his play
- The rookie moved onto the top power-play unit ahead of Saturday’s game against the Islanders
- Read below for what McKenna and Hiller said in the media availability video
Gavin McKenna isn’t sulking about the night he barely played.
The Maple Leafs rookie talked Saturday about sitting the final 32:54 of Thursday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres, and he says Hiller cleared the air. McKenna was asked about the conversation and said it went well.
“Obviously, you want to play, but yeah, we had a good talk,” McKenna said. “He said it had nothing to do with my play, which is obviously nice to know. It doesn’t really take away from your confidence at all.”
Watch McKenna’s full pregame media availability from Toronto:
McKenna played just 6:36 on Thursday and never got another shift after 10:20 of the second period. Hiller took the blame after the game, and the 18-year-old said the coach reached out afterward.
McKenna talked about how he handled watching from the bench.
“Honestly sitting there watching, I tried to learn as much as I could,” he said. “Whenever you get a team like this and you got players like Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, all those veterans, you can learn a lot when you’re just watching.”
He also said teammates told him to move on quickly. “Just shake it off; you’ve got 84 games in a season, so one off game doesn’t mean the end of the world,” McKenna said.
Hiller was asked about the talk and described it the same way. He called it a good conversation and said he loves McKenna’s personality. He didn’t give a specific reason McKenna stopped getting shifts, but he said it wasn’t about trust without the puck.
“I would look at his ice time up until the last game, and I would use that as a bit of an indicator,” Hiller said. He added that the whole team has to be better without the puck.
The ice time before Thursday tells the story. McKenna played a career-high 17:08 in Tuesday’s loss to the Utah Mammoth, and he’s averaging 13:57 through eight games with 13 shots and five points.
There’s a new role waiting for him too. With John Tavares out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, McKenna has been added to the top power-play unit with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Kirill Marchenko and Darren Raddysh.
The Leafs are 3-3-2 and host the New York Islanders at 7 p.m. ET.
