"Forget for a moment, if that's possible, that the Maple Leafs lost against their oldest rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, on Saturday night.

It's the manner in which the Leafs lost that should have their legions of faithful fans gripping their sticks with sweaty anxiety.

Locked in a playoff fight that will last until the end of the regular season in April — assuming, of course, the Leafs don't bow out of the race earlier — the Toronto players couldn't put together a 60-minute effort against the Canadiens, losing 3-1 at the Air Canada Centre.

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price made 32 saves but could count on a finger or two the difficult ones. At a time when these games should be contested as playoff matches, no matter what the calendar says, the Leafs weren't intense and certainly had no killer instinct to put the visitors away in the third period.

There was zero willingness of the Leafs to drive to the net, and if they don't do it with any urgency against a team that had been eight points behind them in the standings, how will coach Ron Wilson get his point across?

"Not getting traffic, that is something we have to confront in practice and work on it and drill it home," Wilson said. "We have to get to the front of the net and we have to pay the price in an ugly game. You have to play it like a playoff game. This was a huge game for us standings-wise and we didn't generate enough traffic in front of the goalie.""