TORONTO – Its been a black hole in Toronto since the second NHL lockout ended, save for one fleeting bright spot last season. Second-best in 2013, the Maple Leafs penalty kill has tumbled right back to the bottom of the NHL this season, second-worst in a league of 30 teams. Since the beginning of November, the unit boasts a very unflattering 73 per cent success rate, yielding 13 goals alone in the past 15 games. No team, in fact, has allowed more power play goals this season (43). "The biggest negative is were giving up too many goals," said head coach Randy Carlyle of the beleaguered penalty kill. "Thats an area we definitely have got to improve on to give ourselves a better chance [to win]. You cant and we do not believe that you can give up a power play goal to the opposition every game and have success." Success a year ago, in which they killed off an impressive 87.9 per cent in the lockout-shortened 48-game campaign, was a true rarity. In the seven seasons between the last two lockouts – from 05-06 to 11-12 – the Leafs never had a penalty kill finish higher than even 24th overall – sitting 24th, 27th, 29th, 30th, 30th, 28th, and 28th. And yet despite employing most of the same personnel as last season – with Jay McClement, Nik Kulemin, Carl Gunnarsson and Dion Phaneuf absorbing the bulk of minutes (new Leaf Tim Gleason proving an added resource) – the results, oddly, have not followed. In their most recent failing, the Leaf penalty kill allowed a pair of power play goals in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Jets – the eighth time theyve allowed two or more in a game in the past 40 outings. "If we string together a couple games with a good PK, confidence rises," Gunnarsson said. "If you have a couple bad games where they score 50 per cent on us, that confidence goes down." According to Extraskater.com, an advanced statistics website, the Leafs are allowing the most shots in the league on the penalty kill per 60 minutes (four-on-five situations), nearly 50 per cent more, in fact, than they did last season. The goaltending, while not quite at the superb level of a year ago – when they held the second-best save percentage in four-on-five situations – has remained just about average (12th best) despite the increased workload. One obvious drop-off from last season is the faceoff circle, specifically with Tyler Bozak, the teams primary faceoff employee. Bozak, who is used almost exclusively for the draw before darting off in favour of Kulemin, has won a scant 36 per cent of his shorthanded faceoffs this season (34-96), down from a stellar 53 per cent mark in 2013. McClement, a 50 per cent marksman last season, is down only slightly at 47 per cent. Losing more faceoffs, quite simply, means more time spent in-zone defending which results in fatigue, more shots against and thus, more goals for the opposition. "It seems like if we have six minutes [shorthanded] a night, were doing a good job for five and a half [of those minutes]," said McClement, "and then we dont get a puck down [the ice] and we have tired legs and its hard for us to kill the way were supposed to kill with tired legs." Though the group believes it has upped the requisite aggressiveness of last season in recent days, theyve often found themselves burned by a simple mistake, such as a failed read or clear. Against the Jets for instance, it was an inability to pick up a hot-charging Blake Wheeler on the first goal, a failure to intercept Tobias Enstroms point-pass to an unchecked Bryan Little in the slot on the second. "It feels like were doing some good things," McClement said. "Were pressuring better and pressuring smarter in the right situations, its just those little tiny breakdowns that are costing us goals." Countering the woes of the Toronto penalty kill has been an exceptional power play, one that ranks amongst the top five in the NHL this season. "Were aware of where our penalty kill is at and were aware that we have to be better on it," said Phaneuf. "We have let it slide and thats our job to get it back." Wholesale NCAA Jerseys China .C. -- The Steve Smith era in Carolina is over. Custom NCAA Jerseys . Williams withdrawal came less than 24 hours after losing in the final Auckland WTA tournament final. "I dont believe she has an injury," Hobart tournament director Mark Handley said. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/. -- Athletics manager Bob Melvin is already starting to run out of superlatives to describe Scott Kazmir. Cheap Basketball College Jerseys . -- The Guelph Storm are moving on to the Western Conference final after defeating the London Knights 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League playoff action. Clearance NCAA Jerseys . - Henrik Samuelsson and Curtis Lazar each had two goals and two assists as the Edmonton Oil Kings secured top spot in the Eastern Conference by defeating the host Red Deer Rebels 7-4 on Saturday in Western Hockey League action.TORONTO - The CFL is hoping to fuse the worlds of football and fashion with a new collection geared toward female fans.The league is partnering with homegrown online retailer eLUXE on the #MyGreyCup collection. Canadian fashion bloggers and style mavens have been enlisted to create and promote their own Grey Cup-specific designs that will be sold on eLUXE leading up to the CFL championship game next month.Participants include: Toronto-based Kate McKenna, segment host of CFL on TSN and producer on CTV talk show The Social, Ottawa-based Grace Odumo, editor-in-chief of 613Style.com, B.C. Interior-based Stephanie Koch of inherited-jeans.blogspot.ca, and Edmonton-based Kira Paran of NorthernStyleExposure.com and Vickie Laliotis of adventuresinfashion.ca.The collection will consist of between six and eight designs on items to be produced in North America such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, totes, ponchos and silver jewelry.Many of the CFLs teams already sell products to female fans, noted Christina Litz, the leagues vice-president of broadcast and media assets. But she said the partnership with eLUXE offers not only the chance to offer a different take, but also a new opportunity to bring more casually interessted female fans into the game.ddddddddddddWe know that we have a lot of passionate female fans and we wanted to pay more attention to them. So, eLUXE seemed like the perfect partner for us and we decided to move forward with it, Litz said in an interview Thursday.This is all about getting the view of bloggers and young women who love fashion, but also have a great connection to Canadas biggest game. So we wanted to take a very personal approach to it and have these bloggers and influencers design their own T-shirts and necklaces and bags with Grey Cup (in mind).Kat Peterson, vice-president of corporate development with eLUXE Media Group, said the collaborative collection also gives style bloggers the chance to showcase their support and enthusiasm for the sport which they may not be able to demonstrate in their day-to-day posts.Its that intersection between clothing and their passions that they have at home.Litz said the #MyGreyCup collection will be launching during the first week of November. Each piece will be under $100 and sold exclusively online at eLUXE.com and eLUXE.ca.The 102nd Grey Cup will take place at B.C. Place in Vancouver on Nov. 30.Follow @lauren_larose on Twitter. ' ' '