After the Maple Leafs’ thrilling 5-4 overtime win over Nashville, head coach Jim Hiller discussed Gavin McKenna’s first NHL goal, the decision to shuffle the lines and reunite Auston Matthews with William Nylander, and Matthews’ standout four-point performance.
What did you like about the game tonight?
Hiller: We won. Let’s start there, right? I thought we’ve had other games where we maybe played better and didn’t win, so let’s start with the two points.
What do you think the first point and first goal could do for Gavin McKenna?
Hiller: It was great. That goal was a goal scorer’s goal. We know he’s a playmaker. By trade, he’s a playmaker, but that was a goal scorer’s goal. Got his feet around it on the strong side, and he had some zip on it.
What was it like on the bench when it happened? What did it mean to the team to see it?
Hiller: The guys were excited for him, but I think more importantly, it was a big goal in the hockey game. That’s the one you remember. It was really important. It wasn’t the first goal of the game. It was an important moment, and he came up big in an important moment. I like that.
Were all of your goals tonight goal scorer’s goals? It certainly seemed like it against a pretty good goaltender.
Hiller: There were some nice goals. There’s no question. Willy’s that came back — you’d call that a goal scorer’s goal, too. We had some good looks offensively. It’s well documented we haven’t been scoring a lot. But tonight, you saw it should only be a matter of time when you have guys who can shoot the puck like that.
During your first tenure here, it felt like this team was never out of any game. Did it feel like that for you tonight?
Hiller: Well, we got behind early, but there was lots of time left in the game. I don’t think we opened it up and played just all-in offense. I thought we still had some defensive structure to the game.
There were lots of players that played really well, but I really felt something special from Auston tonight. If you go back and watch that game, just go shift by shift on his game. You’ll see all the great things that have been said about him. Really, they’re all there in that game tonight.
You started to mix the lines up a little bit. What was behind that, and did you like what you saw once you did?
Hiller: It turned out well. We’ll have to decide if we start the next game like that.
You guys had been asking. We’d been thinking about it. We’d had many conversations, so it wasn’t necessarily something that was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We kind of knew that if we did something, it might look something like what you saw.
There hasn’t been a lot of Matthews playing with Nylander over the years at five-on-five, at least as much as we saw tonight. Is that something that’s hard to resist because it’s a match of two extremely talented players?
Hiller: For me, the time has to be right. It’s hard sometimes. You don’t want to overweight one line. They’re really strong players, and you like to have a little bit of balance. But there are going to be moments in time. I thought they both were strong tonight at the same time, so I thought they could complement each other well.
What did you think of that 3-on-0 in overtime?
Hiller: Oh, geez. I don’t know. I think 34 should’ve just taken that one straight down. We’ll call it a one-on-one. That’s what I would’ve liked. But anyway, they made a pretty good save on it. I’ll say that. We did get a good look.
You’ve been asked since you were hired about Matthews coming back from surgery and how he was doing physically and mentally. Was tonight the high point of that progression—the Matthews people remember from a couple of years ago?
Hiller: It really was for me. I thought he’s been really good the whole camp. You guys have been at practice. He’s working on every puck. But tonight, again, for me, it was just a little bit different. From just a pure hockey perspective, to appreciate his game tonight, it was really a special night for him. Never mind that he scored the overtime winner. I’m not talking about that. Just his game, start to finish.
Was it the battles or the compete level? What stood out most about Matthews’ game?
Hiller: It was everywhere. I think it was his will to win. That was probably the biggest one. He won battles in the D-zone. He played well all over the ice. But I thought his will to win tonight was pretty strong.
