Gavin McKenna admits the Toronto spotlight is already on him, three games into his NHL career with the Maple Leafs.
"I think just how hard it is," McKenna said of his welcome-to-the-NHL moment, in a video shared by the team.
"You come in, you believe in yourself, and I still believe in myself," he added.
"But especially in the Toronto media, putting up zero points in three games, I think you hear about it."
In the clip, he speaks into a cluster of microphones in front of a wall of Leafs logos.
Good for him for saying it out loud. An 18-year-old who admits the noise is real and still backs himself is handling Toronto better than plenty of veterans have.
It's the new kid at school who knows everyone's watching him at lunch and sits down anyway.
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- Toronto has already turned Gavin McKenna into its next hockey obsession
McKenna is a -3 so far on a $1,075,000 cap hit, and he logged 12:46 with one shot against Ottawa on Saturday.
Jim Hiller has kept him in the lineup for all three games anyway.
Is the criticism fair? Three games is a tiny sample for anyone, let alone a teenager.
The Leafs have scored just six goals in three games, so he's hardly alone.
William Nylander, Easton Cowan and Morgan Rielly lead the team with three points apiece, and Kirill Marchenko has two since arriving in the Matthew Knies trade.
His first NHL scrum came in that Ottawa game, and Leafslatest noted he wasn't sure what to do.
At 1-2-0, Toronto hosts Nashville tonight.
Sergei Bobrovsky was taking pucks to the mask on purpose at the morning skate. He sits at .887, while Anthony Stolarz has the Leafs' only win.
Juuse Saros comes in at .933 for the Predators, who are 1-1-0.
After tonight, the Leafs head to Vegas on Thursday for their first road game.
McKenna says he still believes in himself. One point tonight would make that a lot easier for the rest of Toronto to believe, too.
Is the Toronto media being too hard on Gavin McKenna?
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