Auston Matthews just explained how Jim Hiller handles the Maple Leafs after games, hours after a 5-2 home loss to Minnesota.
It was another rough night in Toronto. Matthews scored and put two shots on goal in 21:40 of ice time, but Matthew Boldy had a hat trick for Minnesota and Anthony Stolarz allowed four goals on 25 shots.
A Maple Leafs news account passed along Matthews' comments about the coach's habits, and the star center said Hiller usually doesn't speak to the team after games.
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Matthews didn't frame it as a problem. According to the post, he said the group would "continue to try to clean some stuff up, go over video and make adjustments."
That's a player pointing the room toward the work rather than toward the coach. It's also an answer you give when the losses are piling up and nobody wants to feed a storyline.
The storyline is already there, though. Matthews had sent a message to his teammates on Monday, and the tone sounded like a player tired of losing.
Then came Wednesday, when Hiller was blunt about Gavin McKenna after a 6-3 loss to Colorado, and an AHL trip became part of the conversation.
Is Jim Hiller's quiet approach enough for Toronto?
Not by itself, no. A coach who stays quiet after games can work when a team wins. When it loses to Colorado and Minnesota in back-to-back outings, the room will wonder where the message is coming from.
The star is the one talking, and he's talking about video sessions and adjustments. That is the standard answer, and it can't be the whole answer for a team that has been giving up goals in bunches.
Hiller did speak publicly about McKenna, so the coach isn't avoiding hard words. What fans don't know is what happens behind closed doors, and Matthews' comment doesn't reveal that.
The conversation about Hiller's call-out of McKenna will follow the team into the next one. Toronto plays Edmonton on Saturday, November 14, and the video room will be busy before then.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
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