Fan First Network

Heads up - it's a long one. Sickos only. I went back to look at how McKenna ended up on the bench. Here's what I found: McKenna's final shift ends with about 9:40 remaining in the 2nd period. After that, Hiller rolls the lines. > MacEwen Blueger Duhaime > Tavares Paul Marchenko > Roslovic Matthews Nylander The Matthews line gets on with about 8:15 on the clock. ~20-30 seconds into their shift, they get a TV timeout, extending their shift. Matthews takes a high stick and changes with the clock at ~7:25, but Roslovic's sent on a breakaway with Nylander trailing behind him. Nylander comes off with 7:18. Roslovic follows the play back into his own zone and doesn't come off until 6:59 remaining. Long shift. Missed shift #1: By the time Roslovic changes, Cowan and Sissons have been on the ice 20-30 seconds already. McKenna's linemates are almost ready to come off. Instead of sending McKenna over the boards, Hiller sends out Paul. This is the first missed shift for McKenna. Semi-circumstantial, because I'd expected Paul's line to come out next. They briefly went to the Blueger line, and then sent Paul's line back out. Lines roll. > Paul Sissons Cowan > MacEwen Blueger Duhaime > Tavares Paul Marchenko With the Tavares line on the ice and 5:25 remaining, OEL takes a penalty. McKenna's been sitting ~4+ minutes now. Sissons and Blueger kill ~1:20 of the penalty. Stecher fights Quinn. (The camera doesn't catch it well, but Zach Benson takes a run at McCabe on the change. That's what riled up Troy Stecher before he fights Jack Quinn.) Duhaime and Paul kill the next 30 seconds. There's a whistle, and Sissons and Cowan are sent out to kill the last 10 seconds. Missed shift #2: Now... OEL comes out of the box, and with McKenna's linemates in the offensive zone, Hiller sends out Kirill Marchenko instead of McKenna. The hot hand. This is McKenna's second missed shift. Say what you will about Jim Hiller's decision here - Kirill Marchenko scored immediately, completing his hat trick with 3:09 remaining in the 2nd. McKenna's linemates come off and the lines roll. > Matthews Nylander Roslovic > Tavares Paul Marchenko Morgan Rielly takes a penalty with 1:53 remaining. PK comes out for 30 seconds, BUF takes a penalty. 4 on 4 for the rest of the period. No chance McKenna's out there 4 on 4, especially after sitting for ~7 minutes. > Matthews Nylander > Paul Roslovic End of period. Honestly, nothing egregious there from a coaching standpoint - only 2 missed shifts, largely circumstantial, and the Marchenko sub paid off. Period 3 starts out with 7 seconds of 4 on 4, and then the Leafs have a shortened powerplay. > Roslovic Matthews Nylander > Blueger Sissons Cowan That's the moment, right there. Hiller's decided he's not playing Gavin McKenna anymore. Replaced him with Blueger at the top of the third and never played him again. Next line. > Tavares Paul Marchenko This is where John Tavares gets hurt. > Roslovic Matthews Nylander > Duhaime Sissons Cowan McKenna's been replaced again - could they be moving him up with Paul and Marchenko? > Blueger Paul Marchenko Nope. It's tough. Hiller's finding ice time here for Duhaime and Blueger after benching MacEwen, but couldn't find a way to get McKenna out there? Because he might be cold after sitting + the intermission? In a week where everyone's been raving about Andy O'Brien? Less than ideal. With all that being said, Hiller's explanation in the post-game was shallow, but it tracks. I don't think there's anything more to it. 2nd period was circumstantial and he didn't want to play McKenna 'cold' in the third. I don't agree with the basis of the argument, but I believe it. While I felt the long explanation was required to get everyone on the same page, this is really not as big of a deal as it's being made out to be. Far less egregious than it first appeared. I still think you've gotta get McKenna out there in someone else's spot in the 2nd to keep him going, or get him on the bike at intermission and put him out there early in the 3rd... but it's not the end of the world. Hiller's gotta find a better way to articulate himself in the post-game though, or these kinds of things are going to pile up and work against him every time something goes wrong.