Toronto Maple Leafs first overall pick Gavin McKenna played a career-low 6:36 in Thursday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
McKenna's last shift came at the 10:20 mark of the second period.
"That was my decision," Hiller said postgame, according to The Hockey News' David Alter. "We went for a stretch. I think we had those penalties. I wanted to get him out there. He sat through the penalties and then I didn't get him out there through that stretch. And then in the last few minutes of the period, we're just trying to get out of the period, I guess you would say. Then I've sat him for so long, and he sits in the intermission, so I probably should have got him out there early in the third. I didn't. So, I'll talk to him about that."
Toronto took a 4-2 lead minutes after McKenna's last shift, but it coughed up the advantage in the third and lost in overtime. The Leafs were down to 11 available forwards early in the third after John Tavares exited with an injury, yet McKenna still didn't play.
"We talked about getting him out in the third, and I guess it just didn't happen," Hiller added, according to SDPN's Jesse Blake. "That's on me. And then once we got him to that stage, I just said, 'I'm not gonna put him out there now.'"
Hiller isn't worried about how McKenna will take the benching.
"Very, very mature," Hiller said of McKenna, according to Alter. "Lets stuff roll off and doesn't take anything too, too personally. That's what I've got from him. He's usually ready to go. There's been other times I haven't played him as much and put him in there and double-shifted him and those kinds of things, and he's responded. So yeah, I'll talk to him, but I don't have a big concern about that."
McKenna has two goals and five points through the first eight games of his NHL career.
