Despite a loss, the Leafs fulfilled their promise of an edgier style.

TORONTO – If this new, tough-guy, defend-the-home-turf attitude is going to hang around through 82 games, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to take more than their share of penalties. This much we know.

So after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens in which the Leafs allowed two powerplay goals — one with 4:10 left in regulation to tie the game at 3-3 — the question becomes fairly obvious:

Do the Leafs need to take less penalties? Or simply get better at killing them?

“It’s a team mentality, being tough to play against,” said Mike Komisarek, who took five minor penalties and had a scrap on the night.

He would not directly answer the aforementioned question — no Leaf really did — instead dwelling on the new “team tough” personality these Leafs began to forge in their opener Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre.

The goal?

“Making teams dread to come in here,” Komisarek continued. “We were the better team tonight and we fell short. We didn’t get the two points. (But) we don’t want teams to come in here and think it’s going to be an easy place to play.”

There will be nights when this kind of hockey works for Toronto. With a tad more finish, a 46-27 shots on goal advantage might have made the penalty stats a moot point.

But there isn’t an over abundance of scoring talent on this Leafs roster, and on Thursday at least, there was an over abundance of defencemen eager to hand the puck away on their own zone. Ian White was awful, and Luke Schenn wasn’t much better, allowing Mike Cammalleri to dance around him on the overtime winner, eventually scored by Josh Gorges.

So grinding, hitting and fighting — there were three good scraps on Thursday — will be the Maple Leafs ticket to victory on a lot of nights this season. That’s absolutely fine — except for the part about killing those inevitable penalties.

Toronto was dead last in the NHL in the PK last season at 74.7%, the only team in the league south of the 75% barometer. But even though we could not find someone to give us a straight-up answer to our question about less penalties or a better penalty kill, it seems a sure thing that nobody was apologizing for making the odd trip to the box.

And it must be said — the Leafs were only shorthanded four times. But their leader on defence, Komisarek set the tone as he sat in his ringside seat serving a double minor for high-sticking on the first Habs goal, and then a late elbowing penalty that let Montreal back into the game.

“We can’t change the way we play,” said two-goal scorer Matt Stajan, who looked very good with Jason Blake and promising young Viktor Stalberg. “Obviously, there will be penalties. You’re not going to take zero penalties throughout the season. You’ve just got to do a better job killing them.

“If we play with the effort every game this year, pay attention to details and limit the mistakes we make,” he said. “We’ll learn from this, shore up our PK, and bounce back.”

They are as promised a net-crashing, glove-dropping group these Leafs, a group that Brian Burke is in the process of building in his image. And when they have the energy they did on opening night, they will be a fearful opponent for any team that is either: A) small and skittish; or B) thinks they’re rougher and tougher than Toronto.

The problem may lie in the fact that this game requires an inordinate amount of energy to play. In a schedule compacted by the Olympic break, you have to wonder how this Toronto team will look when some of its energy guys aren’t running around the way they were Thursday.

And offensively, it’s great when you’re tied or in the lead and you’re banging bodies and crashing the net. But when Toronto inevitably falls behind, a good team will prey on this aggressive style, turning a two-goal lead into four or five in a hurry.

Those problems are for later, though. For now, even though the Canadiens waltzed off with the extra point in overtime, Toronto had to like the way they fulfilled their promise of an edgier style. They said they would be tough to play against, and they were indeed.

“Mike answered the bell,” his head coach Ron Wilson said of Komisarek’s penalty-filled night. “We really need our defence to respond more and quicker (to protect the goalie) like Mike did.

“He set a tone tonight that he wants to carry through the whole season, ringing the bell for the rest of our team.”