LAS VEGAS – Peter Horachek brought the phrase to Leafland during some dark times a few seasons back.

“The give-a-(bleep) metre has to be higher,” Horachek said of Toronto’s struggling NHL team during one bleak moment in 2015.

If fans of the Maple Leafs haven’t often had occasion to remember Horachek’s time at the helm, the coach’s famed give-a-bleep metre needed to be brought out of storage this week as the Maple Leafs arrived at T-Mobile Arena for Tuesday night’s game against the Golden Knights.

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Saturday’s 6-1 loss to Sidney Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins, after all, saw Toronto suffer a fifth straight loss in a blasé fashion that would have had Horachek’s contraption detecting a dangerous flat-lining in Leafian competitiveness.

It said something that Tuesday’s scoreless first period – wherein the Maple Leafs put in a solid effort – felt like a victory of sorts.

The good feelings didn’t ultimately last in what turned out to be a sixth consecutive loss by a 4-2 final. After that promising opening frame the visitors were roundly out-played in the second 20 minutes. They gave up the first goal for the 18th time in 23 games this season on a Cody Glass power-play tap-in. And while third-line centreman Jason Spezza scored for the second time in as many games to tie it 1-1, a quick answer from Vegas fourth-liner Tomas Nosek gave the home team the lead.

“We laid an egg of a game in Pittsburgh. A better effort tonight, but when you go through these losing streaks, it always seems like it’s harder to dig yourselves out of it, just like when you’re winning it’s easy to keep winning,” said Spezza. “We can’t take a step back next game. We’ve got to watch the tape and see what we can do better and keep moving forward.

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A mid-third-period power-play goal for Vegas – another special teams failure for the visitors – opened up a two-goal lead.

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Zach Hyman’s first goal of the season then made it 3-2.

In the end, a compelling push by Toronto in the dying minutes nearly tied it before an empty netter sealed it.

“I think there’s a lot of positives to take away from today. I think when you’re losing, it’s hard to stay the course but I think we played really well today,” said Hyman. “We had our chances when the game was on the line there. It was a tight game; we just couldn’t finish it.”

Robbery of the night: Toronto’s Nic Petan nearly made it 3-3 on a late-game back-hander, only to watch Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury make a heroic glove save.

“It was obviously a great save and a great opportunity,” said Leafs captain John Tavares. “We had some really good looks in the third and we’ve got to find a way to put those in. Give him credit, he made it tough and made some good saves.”

Fourth and goal: Mike Babcock is consistent, at least. After a Toronto goal he reliably deploys his fourth line. The problem Tuesday was Toronto’s fourth unit of Nick Shore, Frederik Gauthier and Pierre Engvall was badly outplayed most of the night. Hardly a surprise, then, that 42 seconds after Spezza equalized they were on the ice for an opposing goal. Nosek’s breakaway, mind you, came directly off a turnover by Tyson Barrie, whose attempt to carry the puck through the middle ended in disaster.

Rough night for Ceci: Five days after Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas offered a vehement defence of the honour of the oft-maligned Cody Ceci, the defenceman didn’t exactly do his supporter – and Dubas appears to be a club of one — proud. Ceci inexplicably allowed Nosek to skate by him for an early breakaway, on which Nosek helpfully fanned. And the night didn’t get better, as Ceci’s penchant for low-IQ mistakes bit the Leafs more than once.

Steady Freddie: The Maple Leafs were on 107-point pace with Andersen as their starter heading into Tuesday. And he needed to be great again to keep the Maple Leafs in it, especially during a second period in which Toronto was outshot 17-8. Andersen denied Shea Theodore a couple of glorious chances as Vegas reeled off a second-period flurry.

Down ... and out: The Leafs haven’t played with a lead since a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings more than two weeks ago, and the last time they lost six in a row was in March 2016.

“We want the results. We just want different results. We want to win,” said Tavares. “It’s obviously frustrating when you’re not getting them and I think we’ve talked about resolve and resiliency and trying to stay with it. It’s all we can do is continue to move forward and find ways to get better and get the job done when we have opportunities like this.”

You’re killing me: The Maple Leafs’ laughable penalty kill has now allowed 17 goals in its past 16 games after giving up a pair against Vegas. That, sources say, is not good work.

“We’ve got to keep it out. I didn’t think we were that bad tonight on it, to tell you the truth, but they got two on it so that’s not good enough,” said Babcock. “We’ve just got to keep working at it, we’ll spend more time at it.”

Up next: The Leafs’ six-game road trip continues Thursday night against Phil Kessel and the Arizona Coyotes.