If there’s one thing we can say about this Maple Leafs team halfway through October: however many goals they’ve got, odds are they’ll need more.
asserted
they → ’ → more
The good news is they’ve held the lead in every one of their eight games.
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they → hold → games
The bad news is they’ve only held on to win three of them.
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they → hold → them
And as much as they can aspire to get better at stopping the leaks, the reality is they’re probably going to have to outscore them.
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they → aspire → them
Which makes head coach Jim Hiller’s decision to bench star rookie Gavin McKenna for the second half of Thursday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres all the more perplexing.
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decision → make → Sabres
On a night when the Leafs sat back and watched a two-goal third-period advantage evaporate into another missed chance at two points, they clearly needed an offensive counterpunch as they languished on the ropes for most of the third period.
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they → sit → period
And yet the coach decided against giving McKenna so much as a shift after the 10:20 mark of the second period.
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coach → decide → period
Never mind that the 18-year-old McKenna had been on a four-game point streak.
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McKenna → mind → streak
Never mind that McKenna, at his best, has made some of the sharpest plays of this young season.
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McKenna → mind → season
Never mind that the coach acknowledged the need for such a play to stem the Sabres’ late onslaught.
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coach → mind → onslaught
“In those moments I know it’s hard when you’re on your heels, but you just have to be able to have a little poise and somebody to make a play,” Hiller said.
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Hiller → know → play
Alas, with John Tavares lost to injury, Hiller shortened his bench to three forward lines and kept one of the team’s most gifted game breakers, McKenna, off the ice.
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Hiller → lose → ice
In the end, he logged nine shifts for a grand total of 6:36 of ice time.
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he → log → time
Exactly why wasn’t clear even after the coach answered multiple questions about the matter during a post-game press conference.
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coach → answer → conference
Hiller, to his credit, took full responsibility more than once.
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Hiller → take → responsibility
At first he pointed to a couple of second-period penalties that brought out the Toronto penalty kill, of which McKenna is not a part.
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McKenna → point → which
But that didn’t explain why McKenna, after the second intermission, wasn’t slotted back into the rotation.
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McKenna → explain → rotation
“We talked about getting him out in the third and it, I guess, just didn’t happen,” Hiller said.
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Hiller → talk → third
Why didn’t it happen?
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it → happen → ?
Did the coaching staff fall asleep?
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staff → fall → ?
“That’s on me,” Hiller said.
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Hiller → ’ → me
“And then once we got to that stage, I said: I’m not going to put him out there now.
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I → get → him
I’ve been sitting him there for 30 minutes, it’s not fair to him.
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it → sit → him
If giving a kid a long-overdue shift is Hiller’s idea of unfairness, here’s guessing McKenna would have been happy to suffer it.
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McKenna → give → it
As it is, whatever message he was attempting to send came off as mystifyingly muddled.
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attempting → attempt → message
It’s one game, one mistake, and there’s always more to the story when it comes to the complex dynamics of player-coach interactions.
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it → ’ → interactions
But Leafs management better hope the new coach comes off better in front of a whiteboard than he does in front of a microphone.
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he → hope → microphone
General manager John Chayka, don’t forget, spoke glowingly of Hiller’s reputation for building relationships with players when he was announced as Toronto’s off-the-radar choice as Craig Berube’s replacement back in June.
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he → forget → June
Nailing a No. 1 overall pick to the bench after nine shifts doesn’t seem like a bridge to dressing-room harmony, especially when you can’t explain it.
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you → nail → it
Asked for an assessment of McKenna’s game Thursday night, Hiller said: “It was OK.
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It → ask → game
There were less-than-fine moments, if you watched closely.
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you → be → ?
A few minutes before McKenna’s final shift, the rookie didn’t exactly cover himself in glory on a Buffalo goal by Jack Quinn that tied the game 2-2.
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that → cover → game
On that play, McKenna got caught up ice putting ill-advised pressure on a Buffalo breakout, then glided back on defence as the Sabres turned a rush chance into a goal.
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Sabres → catch → goal
Before the game, the coach had spoken specifically of the importance of skating back hard to prevent goals off the rush, a Leafs weakness.
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coach → speak → rush
McKenna’s lallygagging wouldn’t have gone unnoticed.
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lallygagging → go → ?
Also before Thursday’s game, Hiller made the decision to place the youngest Leafs, McKenna and 20-year-old Easton Cowan, on a third line centred by veteran Colton Sissons.
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Hiller → make → Sissons
“We’re just looking for combinations we can trust, shift after shift,” Hiller said in a pre-game interview with TSN’s Mark Masters.
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Hiller → look → Masters
“(Cowan and McKenna) have to pick their spots.
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Cowan → have → spots
They’re both very talented, but they have to pick their spots.
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they → ’re → spots
So, I’m looking for maturity out of young players.
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I → look → players
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
