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Toronto are penning one of the ugliest chapters in their long NHL existence after a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche consigned the winless Maple Leafs to their worst start to a season since 1991.

The Leafs, off to a 0-5-1 start, and New York Islanders are the only teams still searching for their first victory.

Only once since 1917, when the NHL was formed, have the Leafs got a campaign off to a worse start, stumbling out of the gate 0-6-1 in 1991.

"If it was easy to prevent losing streaks there would be a book on it but there isn't - I've looked," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.

"We've got to relax, do a complete reset. The worst has already happened."

The Leafs last won a Stanley Cup in 1967 and have missed the play-offs in the last four seasons, but they still command the highest ticket prices in the NHL and have sold out every game since moving from Maple Leaf Gardens to the Air Canada Centre in 1999.

But patience appears to be wearing among the fans, who were promised better by general manager Brian Burke after a major off-season overhaul brought in players such as Phil Kessel, Francois Beauchemin and Mike Komisarek.

The capacity crowd of 19,148 expressed their unhappiness loudly on Tuesday, booing the team in the final period.

"We haven't given our fans any reason to cheer us," said Wilson, who will also serve as head coach of the US men's team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

"We haven't done anything and we have to do a better job of getting them on our side."

Despite the off-season additions, Burke's vision has yet to take shape. The team has been plagued by spotty scoring, a leaky defence, and has had a turnstile in net.

The Leafs are already on their third netminder of the new season, sending Joey MacDonald in to face the surging Avalanche, who are off to a smart 4-1-1 start.

Colorado jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead, Brett Clark converting a power-play chance before David Jones split the Toronto defence with less than a minute remaining to send the Leafs into the intermission under a shower of boos.

Toronto answered back with a power-play goal early in the second on Beauchemin's long range rocket past a badly screened Craig Anderson.

But the Avalanche quickly regained control with a power-play goal from former Leaf Darcy Tucker and an even strength tally from John-Michael Liles to go 4-1 up.

"Just not good enough right now from all of us," said Leafs defenseman Komisarek. "You lose a couple of games and it seem like it's an insurmountable mountain to climb. But it's not."

Buffalo Sabres wing Thomas Vanek scored twice in his team's 6-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings but is expected to be out for some time after sustaining an upper body injury during the game.

Vanek scored twice in the second period as the Sabres routed last year's Stanley Cup finalists to improve to 3-0-1 to start the new season.

Vanek fell awkwardly and slid into the boards after his second goal at 12:46 in the second period, sending him to the locker room.

"Thomas is going to miss some time," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "(He'll be out for) weeks. It's tough, but we have extra players and every team deals with injuries."

The 25-year-old Vanek is a major contributor to the Buffalo offense and recorded 40 goals and 24 assists last season, the second 40-goal season of his career.

Drew Stafford opened the scoring for the home team at 12:36 in the first period but Detroit's Valtteri Filppula tied the score at 1-1 three minutes later.

The Sabres then broke the game open with four goals in the second period, Patrick Kaleta and Clarke MacArthur lighting the lamp in addition to Vanek's double.

Paul Gaustad added Buffalo's final tally with a tip-in at 4:28 in the third before Tomas Holmstrom added a consolation goal for the Wings.

"I'm happy with the way the boys are playing," said Sabres netminder Ryan Miller, who finished with 23 saves. "I'm getting a lot of great support all over the ice."

Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood was pulled in the second after allowing five goals. Detroit's record this year is now 2-3-0.

Reuters