Gavin McKenna Lets Hiller Off the Hook, But Trust Issues Remain for Maple Leafs

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Gavin McKenna isn’t concerned about the way things went Thursday night, despite the rookie only playing 6:26 in an overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres. What could have been a serious confidence issue seems to have been avoided.

After limited ice time on Thursday raised questions, McKenna said he and head coach Hiller cleared the air. “We had a good talk. We have a good relationship together,” McKenna said. “He said it had nothing to do with my play, which is obviously nice to know.”

The young forward said the conversation helped. “You want to play,” he admitted, but the explanation didn’t shake his confidence. “I appreciated him reaching out. I trust him, I trust the team. I’m willing to play whatever role this team wants.”

Hiller Tried to Explain His Decision to Bench McKenna

Hiller took responsibility for the decision, but said it wasn’t intentional that McKenna sat as much as the rookie did. He explained that a stretch of penalties kept McKenna on the bench, and the opportunity to get him back out never came. With the team just trying to get out of the period, McKenna sat. Most analysts and fans were surprised that he also sat at the end of the game.

“I probably should have got him out there early in the third,” Hiller said. “I didn’t. So I’ll talk to him about that.” That conversation came the next day, and McKenna seems fine with the explanation given.

Not Everyone is Buying It

Jeff Marek wasn’t convinced by the coach’s explanation. On Daily Faceoff Live, he said he believes a piece of the story is missing and rejected the idea that Hiller simply lost track of the rotation.

“I think we’re missing a piece of the puzzle here; like one part is missing. I don’t buy the goofy janitor, ”Ohh, I just sort of lost track. ‘ I don’t buy any of that. I think this is a case where, and I don’t know what it is or what it could be, but this is a coach sending a message to a young player but then diving on the grenade so the player doesn’t get hounded by it. And I think Hiller is very sensitive; he does not want to start a fire right now around Gavin McKenna.”

Others believe there is a general trust issue, where the coach doesn’t believe he can put McKenna in those tight situations yet. James Mirtle of The Athletic said that was his biggest takeaway from the game, that Hiller didn’t want to put McKenna in a bad spot because he’s not sure he can handle the defensive pressure yet. Toronto wound up playing nine forwards the rest of the game because Hiller was afraid to lose because he had a player on the ice who might not have figured out his two-way responsibilities yet.

For now, both sides are publicly aligned, but there’s clearly more going on here than just Hiller lost track of what was going on.

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