Gavin McKenna and Auston Matthews are made to play together and stats prove it

Gavin McKenna has spent just 19:04 at 5-on-5 with Auston Matthews this season, and the Maple Leafs have won those minutes in a landslide.

Luke Fox posted the number Wednesday afternoon, hours before tonight's puck drop in Seattle. The pair has outshot opponents 11-4 and outscored them 2-0.

Nineteen minutes. Over 14 games.

That's a cameo, not a partnership. Toronto's best player and its 18-year-old blue-chipper have barely shared a shift, and the small sample keeps tilting the ice.

Matthews leads the club with 20 points. He's also sitting at plus-6, the best rating on the team.

The rookie's overall line looks rougher. He has 8 points through 14 games, but his minus-6 rating is the worst mark on the roster.

So what is Jim Hiller waiting for? A combination that controls play like that is being handed out like a free sample at Costco, one little cup at a time.

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John Tavares injury leaves Jim Hiller nowhere to hide

Toronto's forward group is already thinner than planned. John Tavares is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and isn't expected back until at least Nov 27.

That absence forces a reshuffle whether the bench likes it or not. Putting McKenna next to Matthews for real is the most obvious fix available, and it's sitting right there.

The blue line is banged up too. Chris Tanev is on IR with an upper-body injury, expected out until at least Oct 31, and Marshall Rifai carries the same timeline.

Goaltending isn't bailing anybody out either. Sergei Bobrovsky owns a .897 save percentage through 9 appearances.

Monday's 5-2 loss in Calgary stung. It snapped a four-game winning streak that peaked with a 7-2 rout of the Oilers in Edmonton on Saturday.

Now comes Seattle, the third stop on a western road trip that wraps up Saturday in Vancouver. This is the first meeting between the two clubs this season.

Lane Lambert's Kraken sit 7-4-1 and haven't played since a 5-1 home loss to Minnesota on Saturday. Toronto walks into a building full of fresh legs.

The Leafs are 7-5-2 and fifth in their division. They've scored 52 goals and allowed 46, which says they're better than the standings show, but standings don't grade on margin.

And the kid can play. McKenna has 3 goals, including a power-play marker and a game-winner, at an age when most prospects are still learning the pro schedule.

Hiller can keep doling out Matthews minutes in thimble-sized doses. Or he can find out tonight in Seattle what this duo looks like over a full 60.

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