Blue and Whitehorse! Gavin McKenna scores his first and Leafs win - Maple Leafs Postgame - October 6th, 2026

Yeah, and I, and I don't know whether you wanna say, look, it was the, the shortened training camp and only a couple of preseason games, if you, if you wanna go that route [laughs] with the excuses.

Um, but I th- I thought it was something you needed to see in this home stand.

You, you needed to see that push.

Uh, we didn't see it against Ottawa in the third period.

We didn't see it against Montreal.

They nursed a lead into the third period against the New York Islanders.

And, and this was a game that once Nashville went up three-nothing, you thought, "Uh-oh, is this a 5-1, 5-2 loss at home, or is there a push to make things interesting?" And, uh, the, the Leafs were able to do that and, and create.

I think that's what you wanted to see the most from, especially the, the top six, create some opportunities, dictate the play.

And, uh, you know, being led by their captain, Auston Matthews, I thought they did that, uh, easily their best offensive game, uh, of the regular season so far.

Ralphie, you're a man of the people.

I saw you before the game talking to a lot of fans-

[laughs]

... taking pictures, and, and doing it all.

Yeah.

[laughs]

So you sort of, you got the top-

But, but I was taking pictures of them.

[laughs]

[laughs]

[laughs]

You sort of got the sense that, uh, there was something bubbling, right? Just with regards to, you know, is it gonna be like last year? Sort of the negativity bubbling, but how big of a statement win was it for all, sort of, a lot of those answers, a lot of the answers to the questions that have been asked the last couple weeks with regards to this group, a lot of them were answered tonight, were they not?

Well, you hope at least it's a glimpse.

And, and I know you and I talked during the second intermission, um, when the Leafs were still down a goal, and I said what we sort of saw in the first two periods was your, your worst hopes and your g- or your greatest hopes and your worst fears being realized.

The defensive play at, at times, um, w- was something that, you know, Jim Hiller isn't going to look at and say, "I was happy with the way we played in our own end." There were a lot of turnovers, uh, some ended up in the back of the net.

Uh, but yet on the other side of it, the offense was what you had hoped it would be coming out of training camp.