Gavin McKenna calls out Maple Leafs teammates for being unprepared

The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a 4-2 defeat at home to the archrival Montreal Canadiens and what killed the game, according to young star Gavin McKenna, was the team's overall lack of preparation.

Montreal scored two goals within the first 13 minutes (and change) of the first period while the Maple Leafs struggled to get any solid scoring chances to get in the back of the net for them. The Leafs were in a 2-0 hole fairly early on and were not being able to climb out of it without the Canadiens storming back.

Gavin McKenna blames the Leafs' loss on everyone being unprepared

But after the game, youngster Gavin McKenna was asked for more reasons why the Leafs lost in the way that they did.

"Might just be an energy thing," he told reporters. "Tough schedule, but at the end of the day, that's the NHL. Each guy in this room has got to hold themselves accountable to being prepared."

Thankfully, McKenna included himself in that group and put it on himself to start games more on the right foot.

"Even me being a young guy, I can try to influence that a little bit, have better starts to games, and hopefully that can snowball to my teammates."

McKenna did at least show up. While the Leafs were having their major push in the third period, the 2026 first-overall pick scored his sixth goal of the season to make it 3-2, giving Toronto life and an actual chance of at least rescuing a point from the game. (They did not as Zac Bolduc scored five minutes later to make ti 4-2 and put the game away.)

McKenna gave but he also took on Saturday night.

McKenna's own costly turnovers that lost the game

The 18-year-old was asked about an overall impression of the game and why the 4-2 result happened the way it did.

"I honestly thought we played a pretty solid game but a couple turnovers, two by myself, I think that's just what killed us," he said.

The second of McKenna's two turnovers that he mentions was maybe the most harmful. While down 2-0 in the middle of the second period, the 18-year-old winger tries to make a pass across the entire offensive zone to defenseman Jake McCabe but it gets easily picked off by Chris Kreider and he goes down and scores the Canadiens' third goal of the night.

McKenna further explains what he tried to do during the brutal turnover to Kreider directly resulting in a goal.

"I saw McCabe coming down the middle, thought I could get it to him. Obviously, that wasn't the play. But yeah, unfortunate. It was a tough one."

That's just one of those plays that you might just have to live with when it comes to having one of the most skilled teenagers in the world on your team. That pass would have worked in the WHL while playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers, and it probably had a fairly high success rate in the NCAA while playing for Penn State. But this is the NHL, where players are so much faster and so much smarter and will instantly read what you're trying to do.

Kreider is one of those fast and extremely experienced forwards just looking for the right pass to pick off, and McKenna gave away that he was going to make that cross-zone pass for at least a couple seconds.

The Maple Leafs thankfully have a chance to wipe away that result completely, as they host the New Jersey Devils in the second half of a back-to-back at home. It won't be an easy task at all, but it's an opportunity and hopefully they're prepared.

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