Hiller Says Benching McKenna Was His Mistake as the Leafs Blow a 4-2 Lead

The most scrutinised seat in Toronto on Thursday night was the middle of the Maple Leafs’ bench. Gavin McKenna, the first overall pick in the 2026 draft, sat there for the final 32:54 of a 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres, Sportsnet reports, watching a 4-2 lead dissolve in a game his team finished with a shortened bench. Afterwards his coach took the blame in full: the benching, Jim Hiller said, was his mistake.

What happened to McKenna’s ice time against Buffalo?

It ended at 10:20 of the second period. McKenna took nine shifts and logged 6:36, the lowest total of his NHL career, The Hockey News reports, with one shot on net. Nothing about the night up to then predicted it. He had arrived on a four-game point streak, and two nights earlier in Utah he had played a career-high 17:08, TSN reports. Jack Quinn scored twice and added two assists for Buffalo, and Owen Power won it in overtime, Sportsnet reports, but the postgame questions were all about the 18-year-old who never left the bench while it happened.

Why did the penalties strand him in particular?

Because of what he does not do yet. Toronto was shorthanded twice late in the second period, Oliver Ekman-Larsson for high-sticking at 14:35 and Morgan Rielly for hooking at 18:07, with Buffalo’s Zach Benson called for interference at 18:33 in between, TSN reports. McKenna is not part of the penalty-kill rotation, and Hiller has not used him at four-on-four or in 3-on-3 overtime either, Sportsnet reports. So the special-teams stretch that swallowed the end of the period swallowed him with it. Ekman-Larsson knows the other side of an officiating week: days earlier his hit by Jeremy Lauzon drew no penalty call at all, and this time a routine minor on him started the sequence that removed the Leafs’ most gifted young forward from a one-goal game.

Did Hiller bench him for his play?

No, and Hiller was emphatic about it. Asked about McKenna’s game, the coach rated it fine, TSN reports. There was a visible moment for the prosecution: a couple of shifts before the sit, McKenna was beaten up-ice twice and Quinn scored his second to tie the game 2-2, Sportsnet reports, and scoring chances were still 6-4 for Toronto with McKenna on the ice. Hiller’s account never reached for any of that. The penalties did it, he said, and then his own hesitation finished the job. That is a rarer thing than a benching: a coach using his postgame press conference to clear a rookie of a demotion nobody in the room could prove was one.

Why did the benching feed on itself?

Because sitting became its own reason to keep sitting. Hiller’s explanation, given to TSN and Sportsnet in near-identical terms, runs in stages. McKenna sat through the penalties. The staff meant to return him early in the third and did not. By then he had been idle for roughly half an hour including the intermission, and Hiller decided it would not be fair to throw a cold 18-year-old into a collapsing game. Meanwhile the bench was shrinking: Zack MacEwen was also benched midway through, and John Tavares left early in the third after a collision with Josh Norris, leaving Toronto with 11 forwards, theScore reports. Hiller still shortened to nine, choosing defensive forward Colton Sissons over McKenna in overtime. The league has seen the opposite rookie story this week, Dylan Peterson fighting on his NHL debut while his mother stole the broadcast; McKenna’s week is the reminder that a top pick’s minutes can vanish without an injury, a slump or a word said against him.

How did his captain respond?

By closing ranks. Auston Matthews told reporters these things happen, that everyone in the room has been through it, and that the group has McKenna’s back, TSN reports. Matthews predicted the night would make the rookie hungrier for the next one. McKenna himself did not get to answer: despite a media request he was not made available, a team decision, Sportsnet reports. Hiller, for his part, described McKenna as very mature, the kind who lets things roll off him, and noted there have been other nights of light usage that McKenna answered by responding when double-shifted later, The Hockey News reports. That self-portrait now has a date attached to it.

What happens next for McKenna?

Saturday, at home, against the New York Islanders, with the whole league watching his first shift. Thursday was a night for contenders explaining oddities, with Colorado arguing over two disallowed goals in Dallas while Toronto argued over an empty shift log. Toronto took Friday off and skates Saturday morning, TSN reports, and Hiller has promised McKenna a conversation before then. The open question is not whether he plays but how the coach repairs the usage: a top pick who had two goals and five points in eight games, theScore reports, and a point streak running, was a bystander in the season’s most chaotic Leafs game. Young stars have carried heavier storylines than this before, as Connor Bedard’s captain’s debut a month ahead of schedule showed this week, but Bedard’s story was about being trusted early. McKenna’s, for one night, was about a coach who left his best young player sitting and then stood in front of the cameras and said so. The reply came four days later: McKenna scored the winner in his first meeting with No. 2 pick Ivar Stenberg, a power-play goal that beat the Sharks on Monday night.