The Maple Leafs announced Saturday that forward John Tavares is out week to week because of a lower body injury sustained Thursday. McKenna has since been added to the top power-play unit alongside Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Kirill Marchenko and Darren Raddysh.
As it became clear he likely was not going to receive another shift against the Sabres, McKenna said he tried to use the experience as positively as possible.
“Honestly sitting there watching, I tried to learn as much as I could,” McKenna said. “I think whenever you get a team like this and you got players like Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, all those veterans, I think you can learn a lot when you're just watching.”
Matthews said “we’ve all got his back” after the game, and McKenna added he’s received encouragement from several teammates.
“Just shake it off; you've got 84 games in a season, so one off game doesn't mean the end of the world,” McKenna said. “We got a game on Saturday, so it's a pretty quick bounce back, just shaking it off. … They've all kind of told me the same thing, and I'm just trying not to think about it at this point.”
Hiller did not point to a specific reason as to why McKenna did not receive another shift after 10:20 of the second period, but he made clear it was not because of a lack of trust in McKenna’s play without the puck.
Prior to Thursday, his lowest ice time was 12:46 in a 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 3. McKenna, who is averaging 13:57 per game, played 17:08 in a 5-4 loss at the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday.
Toronto is 3-3-2 entering its game Saturday.
“I would look at his ice time up until the last game, and I would use that as a bit of an indicator,” Hiller said. “I think he's played quite a bit. It's not only him, it's every player. It's got to get a little bit better on our team, I think, without the puck. I think we're pretty good with it. So that's something we address daily with our entire team.”
