Killer instinct needed

On a night when Toronto fans got yet another opportunity to express their pleasure for 'Killer' Doug Gilmour, Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson wishes he could have had a little of No. 93's spirit and determination on the ice.

"We didn't have a killer instinct tonight," Wilson said. "We had a really good first period and then, like we did in St. Louis, we backed off a little bit and they scored a goal. Then the inevitable things that are going to happen when you're not really digging in and pushing happened. We took one penalty and then we took a really bad high-sticking penalty so now it's 5-on-3. You're basically looking at killing off two minutes of 5-on-3 and that's a pretty difficult task. We didn't do it."

That was the coach's explanation following his team's 5-2 loss to the visiting Ottawa Senators. Prior to the game former Leafs Gilmour, Joe Nieuwendyk and Ed Belfour, as well as former Toronto Marlies' junior star Mark Howe, were honoured as the Hockey Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. The foursome will be inducted into the Hall of Fame Monday.

The Leafs got off to a good start. It was the finish they were disturbed about.

Toronto took a 1-0 lead in a scrappy first period when Tyler Bozak notched his first of the year. However, Bozak was nailed for holding at 16:17 of the second period and two seconds later Philippe Dupuis was sent off four minutes for accidentally high-sticking Nick Foligno. Foligno, who was cut by Dupuis' stick, made the Leafs pay by scoring on a breakaway at 17:46. After Zack Smith made it 3-1 just 48 seconds into the third, the Leafs kicked it into gear producing numerous scoring chances. Joffrey Lupul, who continues to impress as a first-liner, pulled his team to within one at 17:10 on a fabulous second effort goal, but the Sens preserved it two empty-netters.

Truth is the final goal was actually scored by Toronto's Clarke MacArthur, who passed back to the point and had to watch it slide all the way down the ice into the net that was vacated by goaltender Ben Scrivens. Oops. Ottawa's Milan Michalek was given credit for the goal.

Home has not been very sweet for the Leafs as of late. They were slaughtered 7-0 by Boston last Saturday and then were humiliated 5-1 by the Florida Panthers Tuesday. So if you throw in the 5-2 loss to the Senators Saturday, the Leafs have been out-scored 17-3 on home ice in three games.

"You want to get a win on home ice and you want to make your building a hard place for other teams to play in, but the bottom line is you want to get wins anywhere," said defenceman John-Michael Liles, arguably Toronto's best player on the night. "We had a couple of bad games on home ice. That happens. It is what it is. It is a long season and there are going to be times when you're not playing your best or you're not getting bounces, but you have to play to your identity because that's something you can control."

The Leafs have shown, at times, they can be a club that can dictate the pace of the game. Recently, though, they have been too passive. Their penalty-killing has been getting better, but against the Senators, it was their power play that came up empty; finishing the night 0-for-5.

Not only that; the Leafs say they pride themselves on being a team that can cripple their opponents with their speed. But their breakouts in the past few games have been snuffed out by lousy passes. It doesn't matter how fast you are if the first pass out of the zone is going into the skates instead of tape-to-tape. I'm sure the Leafs will see that when they sit down and watch the tape - of the game.

It would be easy to point to the fact Toronto just played its 10th game without starting goalie James Reimer who suffered an upper body injury Oct. 22 in Montreal as the main reason why things have suddenly gone a bit south. There have certainly been nights when Jonas Gustavsson or Ben Scrivens tended the goal that goaltending was an issue, but against Ottawa it was not Reimer's absence that cost Toronto the game. Scrivens played well.

Captain Dion Phaneuf thinks his team's development is a work in progress. Not making any excuses for the Leafs inability to win at home, he believes it requires more determination and attention to detail.

"It's learning how to win and building a winning culture," Phaneuf said. "I think we're on our way, but we're still learning. We're going to have to learn to win these one-goal games that seem to be slipping away from us. I'm not being negative, but when we're up by a goal we tend to sit back and we're going to have to learn to keep pushing and win these kinds of games that we have leads in.

"We started well. It's not from a lack of preparation or not being focused. We played the way we have to play to win games, but we got away from it and it hurt us. We've been guilty of it a little too much lately and we're going to have to keep instilling into our room what we have to do for a full game. It's about continuing to get better and continuing to learn and we're going to have to learn from these games that keep slipping away from us."

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy will cover the Toronto Maple Leafs for sportsnet.ca for the 2011/12 season.