Why Maple Leafs’ benching Gavin McKenna didn’t make sense, even with hindsight

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source 

If there’s a lesson for Gavin McKenna in being benched on Thursday night, you can’t blame the Maple Leafs rookie if he’s not quite sure what it is.

McKenna did nothing egregious against the Buffalo Sabres before he took a spot on the bench midway through the second period and didn’t see the ice again, playing six minutes 36 seconds as the Leafs went on to lose 5-4 in overtime.

This for a kid who had been riding a four-game point streak and played 17 minutes eight seconds in the Leafs’ loss in Utah against the Mammoth 48 hours earlier, marking the most ice he had through his first seven games in the National Hockey League.

There wasn’t a string of poor play leading up to the benching that we could point at and say, yes, McKenna appears to be struggling and could benefit from watching for a while.

In fact, the opposite was true — as McKenna weathered a difficult three-game trip through Vegas, Colorado and Utah, his ice time increased in each game as the Leafs went 1-1-1.

How was McKenna doing prior to Thursday night?

After going pointless in his first three NHL games, McKenna was demonstrating that he was making an adjustment to the pace of the best hockey league on the planet. If there were mistakes or missteps being made by McKenna, nothing was overly worrisome.

And keep in mind that he plays on a team that often can’t get out of its own way defensively. Experienced NHL veterans with the Leafs, however, don’t have to be concerned about possibly riding the pine when they falter. Benching older players isn’t a thing in Toronto.

Considering McKenna’s maturity — an attribute that the Leafs’ coaching staff and players have brought up numerous times in the months since the 18-year-old was picked first overall in the 2026 draft by Toronto — the chances are good that he will put it behind himself quickly, starting on Saturday night when the Leafs play host to the New York Islanders at Scotiabank Arena.

In the moment, though — and in this we include the day after on Friday — it’s not a good look for coach Jim Hiller.

The benching was unnecessary, no matter the reasons Hiller provided during his post-game availability.

The Leafs didn’t beat a steady path to the penalty box in the second half of the second period. Defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson was called for holding at 14:35. Morgan Rielly went off for hooking at 18:07, but that minor mattered less when the Sabres’ Zach Benson was sent off for interference at 18:33.

A fight involving Leafs defenceman Troy Stecher and the Sabres’ Jack Quinn at 15:53 had no bearing on the status of McKenna or any other Leafs forward.

It wasn’t as though the Leafs took four or five minors in the second and there was no choice but to leave McKenna, who doesn’t kill penalties, on the bench.

There was an opportunity for Hiller to use McKenna early in the third period, with the Leafs up 4-2, and get the freshman back into the game.

Even when John Tavares went out with an undisclosed injury 2:32 into the third period — Hiller had no update on Tavares’ status afterward — the coach didn’t tap McKenna on the shoulder.

At that point, the Leafs still held a two-goal lead and there was little indication that Buffalo was going to rally.

Ending McKenna’s stapling to the bench would have been expected. You’d think he would have provided the Leafs a fresh set of legs and perhaps been motivated to show Hiller that being sat was the wrong decision.

Instead, we can only speculate.

The Sabres didn’t start their comeback until the period was 10 minutes five seconds old, when Dennis Gilbert beat a screened Sergei Bobrovsky with a point shot. Mattias Samuelsson tied the game just over two minutes later.

If the Leafs have the kind of confidence in McKenna that they say they do, they would have been comfortable using him as the stakes got tighter in the third period. He’s going to learn more by being on the ice than on the bench.

If he’s not going to get that kind of experience in the eighth game of the regular season, how can he expect to be relied upon when the outcome of games will be more critical in the second half of the regular season?

Where do the Leafs go from here?

How McKenna feels about it, we won’t know until Saturday, as the Leafs had a full day off on Friday. Media requests to speak to McKenna after the game on Thursday night were denied by the club.

Hiller had this to say about whether he was concerned about McKenna’s psyche: “I’ll talk to him. Yeah, you’re always worried. But you guys have talked to him … (he’s) very mature. He lets stuff roll off him. Doesn’t take anything too personally. That’s what I’ve got from him.

“He’s usually ready to go … I’ll talk to him. But I don’t have a big concern about that.”

And this from captain Auston Matthews: “(It’s) going to just make him hungry for the next one to go out there and compete and dominate, and (we’re) excited to watch that.”

Through eight games, it’s clear the Leafs have enough to worry about.

They remain an adventure defensively and don’t have Chris Tanev, out on a week-to-week basis with an injury, to lead the way. If they’re going to rely on outscoring their mistakes — an approach that has helped no team win the Stanley Cup — then they’ve come up short in their past two games.

McKenna could very well move past the benching and forget it occurred. We would expect as much.

As we said, though, it didn’t have to happen.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

1. 

   Soccer
2. 

   Toronto & GTA
3. 

   Relationships
4. 

   Television
5. 

   Editorial Cartoons