Same old story

WINNIPEG - Another day, another injury. Another game, another night of lousy penalty killing.

That, sadly, has been the on-going story for the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs for most of this season. While the Leafs were able to overcome the odd injury here and there early in the year, it seems to be taking a toll on the club as 2011 came to a close. Perhaps 2012 will bring them better luck.

And perhaps in 2012 the Leafs will figure out how to kill off penalties. Either that or stop taking so many.

A 3-2 loss to the Jets before a very vocal crowd of 15,004 at the MTS Centre means the Leafs have slipped out of the playoffs, all the way down to 10th in the Eastern Conference. It is also three straight losses since the team -- or make that the coach -- announced Ron Wilson was given a contract extension.

On Friday it was first line centre Tyler Bozak going down with an upper body (shoulder) injury and on New Year's Eve it was his right winger, Phil Kessel's turn.

Shortly after he scored his 21st goal of the season Kessel was hit by teammate Cody Franson's slap shot in the second period and appeared to be in considerable pain on the bench before he departed for the dressing room. Luckily he returned for the third period so it doesn't appear to be too serious. Then again, there were times in the third when he seemed to be favoring his foot and appeared to be wincing in pain on the bench. Stay tuned.

Kessel was actually lucky the hard-shooting blueliner saw him as he was winding up or it could have been worse.

"I got the puck and I wound up to shoot," Franson said. "When I looked up I saw Phil was in the lane so I kind of let up a bit on the shot."

Bozak, who has fit in nicely on the top line skating between Kessel and Joffrey Lupul, wasn't so fortunate. He was injured when he crashed into the boards during practice here Friday and was quickly placed on injured reserve, which means he'll be out for at least a week.

Bozak joins defencemen Mike Komisarek and John-Michael Liles as well as forwards Colby Armstrong, Philippe Dupuis and Mike Brown on IR.

The Leafs didn't bother calling anybody up from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League to take Bozak's place. Instead they reactivated center Matthew Lombardi, who had been out with a shoulder injury of his own suffered Nov. 17.

Statistically that is not a good trade off for the Leafs. Bozak is third in club scoring with seven goals and 25 points in 35 games and he's plus-4. Lombardi, who missed all but two games last season with a concussion, entered the game with two goals and six points and was minus-7 in 19 games.

On this night, the Leafs weren't the only team dealing with significant injuries. The Jets were without centre Bryan Little, their fifth leading scorer with 11 goals and 20 points in 32 games, as well as stud defenceman Dustin Byfuglien who is fifth among NHL defenders with six goals and 24 points in 32 games.

The Leafs' 30th ranked penalty kill bit them hard again, particularly in the second period when they allowed two Jets power play goals and a third just as a penalty expired. So it was almost as though they allowed three on four chances. All in all the Jets were 2-for-6 with the man advantage, but those goals were the difference in the game.

After the game the dreadful penalty kill was the hot topic inside the Leafs dressing room. David Steckel, who played a solid game, was visibly shaken at having to answer questions for the umpteenth time about his team's inability to kill off penalties.

"On other teams I played on we had a rule where we tried to never take more than three or four penalties in a game," Steckel said. "How many did we take tonight? We work on our penalty kill every practice and it seems like we know exactly what we want to do. Maybe it's because there are no consequences when we get scored on in practice. We seem to do things right for the most part, but then there's a breakdown and the puck ends up in our net. It is very frustrating. We need a game where we kill off fur or five penalties to get our confidence back."

Coach Wilson said two of Winnipeg's goals were kicked in by members of the Leafs and he wondered aloud if his own players were screening goalie James Reimer. Reimer, however, would not place any blame on his teammates.

"I will never point in the direction of one of my teammates," Reimer said. "Those guys go out there and put themselves in danger risking injury by trying to block shots. I'll never blame those guys."

As for the depleted lineup, typically nobody is willing to use that as an excuse for the team dropping its third straight road game.

"Sure we miss our guys, but the other team had injured players, too," Franson said. "When you get to the playoffs you're never going to make it through without bumps and bruises. We have to condition ourselves to deal with injuries during the regular season."

The way things are going for the Leafs now, the playoffs - yet again - may not be a concern.

The Leafs now will play eight of their next nine games at Air Canada Centre, starting with an encounter against the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday night. They'll play a rematch against the Jets Thursday and then will complete the week with a Saturday night tilt against the Detroit Red Wings.

You'd have to think the Leafs have been looking at this home stand for a long time as an opportunity to put themselves into a more secure playoff position, but with the injuries, that might not be the case.

What they may be hoping is that a strong showing at home will mean they won't sink further in the Eastern Conference standings.

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