Familiar territory

CHICAGO -- So, guess we're not going to get that Toronto-Edmonton Stanley Cup final after all, huh? And the flights would have been so easy…

As sure as you knew snow would fly on the Prairies in November, so too has this month blanketed Leafs and Oilers fans with a dose of reality. Toronto has lost three of four, while Edmonton - which entered the month on top of its Conference - just came through a three-stop, Original Six tour with nothing to show for games in Boston, Detroit and Chicago other than a solid scolding from head coach Tom Renney.

How would he assess a 6-3 loss to the streaking Blackhawks?

"Awful. Next question."

What disturbed him?

"No battle level. No sustained battle level. No forecheck. We weren't heavy on our own stick," he said. "I don't think (his players) realize yet what it takes to win on a nightly basis."

Renney's team, a 30th-place group the previous two years, has lost three straight: In Boston against the surging Cup champs; in Detroit versus the mighty Red Wings; in Chicago against the stacked Cup champs from two years ago.

Frankly, those teams should beat Edmonton at home.

Toronto, meanwhile, has hit the skids themselves, losing three of their last four. That includes losses to lowly Florida and Ottawa at the Air Canada Centre, after the Bruins had already blown the Leafs out by a 7-0 score.

In both Canadian cities, fans are trying to discern a hot start from reality. And so are the coaches.

"We didn't have a killer instinct tonight," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said after a 5-2 defeat to Ottawa on Saturday.

Toronto thought themselves to be a better team than Ottawa this season, which seemed about right. But they've lost two straight to the Senators, and with four games on this week's docket Toronto is trying to find the game that got them through October.

"We're going to have to figure out how to push the pace for 60 minutes and develop that kind of instinct to push a team down," Wilson said. "We have to push the pace better and that is where the focus has to be on Monday when we practice again."

Renney, meanwhile, had a small eruption after his team played a loose, no-hit game in Chicago. Taylor Hall had one point on this six-game road trip and is struggling mightily, while Ben Eager -- acquired as a UFA to provide toughness and grit -- has nine hits all season and just one short scrap.

By Renney's eye, these last three games proved his team is nowhere near the pedigree of these recent Cup winners.

"We've got a couple of rungs to (climb)," he said, visibly upset with another loss Sunday night in Chitown. "And it starts in your own head. The minute you man up, and buy in, and understand the pain, how much it hurts to be a winner? We've got a shot. Right now? Not good enough.

"There's not a light switch to that. It's a deep, deep, deep commitment," he said. "Winning hurts. But boy oh boy, does it ever feel good."

Back in Toronto, there are similar signs that early season success has left the Leafs a bit content. The feeling is that a few wins will beget more, and the players can take their collective foot off the gas and employ cruise control.

"We get a lead and sink down to a different level," said centreman Tyler Bozak. "We stop playing our game, stop getting pucks deep. We're finding out that is not going to work.

"You don't want teams coming in and thinking it's not going to be a tough night."

When the Maple Leafs do well in Toronto, the sheer girth of the media coverage serves to warm other teams that they'd better bring their 'A' game to get the two points. With Edmonton, all the talk about the young, flashy reborn Oilers gives veteran clubs like these just that much more incentive to show the kids that they've got a long ways to go - no matter what their press clippings say.

Either way, the rest of the pack has caught up to Edmonton and Toronto. The fast starts are history, and unless both teams find a game that has some staying power, they will be too.

Mark Spector is the senior columnist on sportsnet.ca