'I Trust Him': Gavin McKenna Reveals Talk With Maple Leafs Coach Jim Hiller About Being Benched Against Sabres

Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Gavin McKenna spoke about getting benched for the second half of their last game against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. The 18-year-old ended up playing just 6:36 of ice time, which is the lowest of the season so far for him.

McKenna and Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller spoke about what went down and why the bench boss made that decision. It turns out it was a positive interaction.

"It was a good conversation, like Gavin and I have had, you know, since I've met him," Hiller said after Saturday's morning skate. "He's a really interesting guy. I just, I just love his personality. He's got. Great confidence. He knows how good he is. He knows how great he's going to be, and we just had another good conversation."

"Obviously you want to play, but yeah, we had a good talk," McKenna said. "We have a good relationship together, me and Jim."

Hiller said after Thursday's game that the two penalties toward the end of the second period threw off his rotation of forwards, and that left McKenna not seeing the ice for the second half of the middle frame, and ultimately, because of the intermission, he didn't play the rest of the game with cold legs.

But it's been made clear that this decision from Hiller wasn't related to his performance or anything regarding his play.

"He said it had nothing to do with my play, which is obviously nice to know," McKenna said about Hiller's decision. "You know, it doesn't really take away from your confidence at all. So I appreciated him reaching out. And, yeah, I mean, I trust him. I trust the team. I trust what they want to do. So I'm willing to play whatever role this team wants."

Hiller elaborated on his comment about how he wanted to get McKenna on the ice, particularly early in the third. But, obviously, that didn't transpire.

"I had a couple opportunities to do that, and thought about it for sure, and just in that moment made a decision to go a different direction for different reasons," the bench boss admitted. "And then, like I said, you know, that way it's set forever. Didn't want to put him in a bad spot after that."

Hiller was asked further about where his trust level is with McKenna in terms of playing away from the puck, and this was his response.

"I don't know. I would look at his ice time up until the last game, and I would use that as a bit of an indicator," he said. "I think he's played quite a bit. It's not only him, it's every player has got to get a little bit better on our team. I think with the puck, I think we're pretty good with it. So that's that's something we address daily with our with our entire team."

See more of The Hockey News on Google — Save us as Preferred Source

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.