{"id":939512,"date":"2026-10-20T02:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939512\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T02:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:22:09","slug":"mckenna-surviving-under-the-toronto-microscope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939512\/","title":{"rendered":"McKenna surviving under the Toronto microscope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs rookie forward Gavin McKenna logged a season-high in ice time against the Islanders on Saturday, following a benching in the previous game against the Buffalo Sabres.Tyler Schank\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Having successfully negotiated the biggest speed bump of his rookie season so far, Gavin McKenna was in a generous mood on Monday \u2013 so much so that he allowed Maple Leafs<\/a> captain Auston Matthews to switch sticks with him for the morning skate.<\/p>\n

While both will stay loyal to their original twigs for the foreseeable future, given the way that the 18-year-old negotiated the minefield of the Toronto media over the weekend, ensuring that \u2013 outwardly at least \u2013 the relationship with his coach remains on solid ground, it won\u2019t be the last time others want to borrow things from him. <\/p>\n

Certainly, there are many professional athletes \u2013 Cristiano Ronaldo, for one \u2013 who should take notes on the calm manner in which he reacted to his benching for the second half of last Thursday\u2019s loss to the Buffalo Sabres; a career first, according to McKenna.<\/p>\n

The rookie\u2019s talent for diplomacy wasn\u2019t lost on his captain either, although Matthews admitted he was hardly surprised given what McKenna has shown since he arrived in Toronto this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anything really shakes him or rattles him,\u201d Matthews said of the first overall draft pick. \u201cI think he\u2019s somebody who just lives in the present moment, makes the best of whatever situation he gets put in, and if it\u2019s not something that he\u2019s happy with, he just keeps working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday Morning Halfback: Canadian tennis, McKenna\u2019s benching and questioning an MLB lockout<\/a><\/p>\n

Much of that work was done over the off-season, when McKenna took part in a Vancouver training camp with several National Hockey League players, including newly appointed San Jose Sharks captain Macklin Celebrini. <\/p>\n

Before the two pitted wits for the first time on NHL ice as the Leafs hosted the Sharks Monday, McKenna had tipped his cap to the young superstar \u2013 who finished fourth in the scoring race last season as a 19-year-old \u2013 for giving him a primer on competing at the NHL level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see a guy like that, see how well he\u2019s doing, and see how hard he works, I think it kind of shows where you got to get to, and yeah, with how hard he works, I think [it] rubs off on me,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cI hope that\u2019s something I can carry through to guys coming up in the league as well. Show them how to work hard and what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on McKenna\u2019s summer of training with Celebrini, what it takes can apparently involve up to 17 hours of ice time per week in addition to off-ice gym sessions, as well regular hikes up the famous Grouse Grind, a 2.5-kilometre trail with an average gradient of 30 per cent up the face of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, B.C. While the hike\u2019s website says the average time to climb it is between two and two-and-a-half hours, McKenna said his best time was \u201csomething like 41\u201d minutes, while Celebrini did it in 38. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

McKenna (92) has received praise from his teammates and coach for his ability to stay focused and to not let setbacks weigh on him.Nick Turchiaro\/Reuters<\/p>\n

However, Celebrini claimed his best Grind time was \u201ca couple years ago, but I think I did in like 34.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini said it was fun to get to know McKenna during their workouts, adding that he didn\u2019t really know him before. <\/p>\n

While they share commonalities as a pair of former first overall draft picks \u2013 Celebrini\u2019s draft was two years ago \u2013 the 20-year-old Sharks captain adds that their situations are different. The eruption last week over McKenna getting just nine minutes and 49 seconds of ice time is a case in point. The smallest amount of ice time that Celebrini had his rookie year was 15 minutes and 24 seconds, and he ended up averaging 19:47; through nine games, McKenna has averaged 14:23.<\/p>\n

But then the situations they were drafted into are vastly different. San Jose hasn\u2019t made the playoffs since before the pandemic, whereas Toronto missed out last season for the first time in 10 years. Certainly Celebrini wasn\u2019t drafted into a team containing a former NHL MVP and a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, so he was able to be given time to learn on the job, and just as crucially make mistakes largely without being penalized for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just different,\u201d he said. \u201cI think in our situation, we had 20 wins our first year, so that\u2019s not fun, and no one\u2019s enjoying that. So, on this side, I think it\u2019s tough, especially with the attention that he\u2019s getting, and maybe he\u2019s getting scrutinized for all the little things. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think over time, just being on a winning team and being surrounded by that kind of talent and that kind of team, it\u2019ll only help him.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Toronto head coach Jim Hiller was taken to task for last week\u2019s treatment of McKenna, with some calling it his first big mistake since he took over from Craig Berube behind the bench this summer, the two have seemingly talked it over and moved on. <\/p>\n

Hiller responded by doling out 17:56 of ice time to McKenna during Saturday\u2019s 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders; it was the most ice time McKenna has received so far and was the third most among Leafs forwards. <\/p>\n

Asked about the most impressive thing he has seen out of McKenna nine games into his NHL career, Hiller focused on something unrelated to on-ice ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll just say one: The talent is obvious, but his personality, just the way he carries himself, his quiet confidence,\u201d he said. \u201c \u2026 We had a couple days here of questions, but he\u2019s unflappable. Maybe that\u2019s a word I would use with him. Just a really great kid who\u2019s got on a trajectory, he\u2019s going to have a phenomenal career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Maple Leafs rookie forward Gavin McKenna logged a season-high in ice time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,3302,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-939512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-toronto","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}