TORONTO -- Carolina coach Paul Maurice isn't buying into any deep theories about why his club came out on the short end of a 1-0 score against Toronto in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final.

Rather, Maurice chalked up the loss to the simple nature of this very close series.

"You can take the exact same game and have two breaks go in (the net) and you leave saying, 'Boy, we played great,' " Maurice explained at an off-day news conference. "And have the exact same game happen like last night and say, 'Jeez, we had them.' We just didn't get it done." For the most part, Maurice liked his team's performance in Game 5. So much so, that he said he didn't lose any sleep over the lost opportunity to close out the resilient Leafs, who avoided elimination for the fourth time in this playoff spring. Instead, Maurice was eager to break down the game video with his coaching staff and look to make some minor adjustments for Game 6, scheduled for Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre.

"Video is such a good tool at this point," Maurice said. "You can see what happened. And, you make sure you see it again and understand exactly what happened."

Throughout the series, the 35-year-old coach repeatedly has said his team plays best when it focuses on a simple game. Maurice would like to see his players get the puck to the net more often, instead of looking to make fancy plays.

"In the last two games, we've stopped putting the puck at the net as frequently from bad angles," Maurice said. "We've started to kick it back into the middle, looking for a different play. That's taken away some of the traffic that we're able to get to the front of the net and it has slowed us down.

"It hasn't happened a lot, but it has happened enough that we've got to get back to putting that puck to the net," he continued. "There were two or three times down by the hash marks where there was really nothing back in the middle of the ice. There never is this time of the year."

Maurice might be talking about left wing Sami Kapanen (among others), who has scored just one goal in their 17 playoff games. On several occasions in Game 5, Kapanen overhandled the puck in the offensive zone, squandering potential scoring opportunities.

The coach also talked about his power play unit, which failed to click on four chances in the second period, including a 59-second 5-on-3 advantage. Maurice felt the unit was too deliberate in moving the puck. Too often, it seemed the 'Canes were trying to force one-timers for defenseman/point man Sean Hill.

On their final power play chance of the period, Maurice used defenseman Bret Hedican, instead of Kapanen, on the point. The change almost paid off with a goal when center Ron Francis threaded a pass to a cutting Hedican to the left of the net. Only a sliding save by Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph kept the 'Canes from scoring on the play.

"I thought that last power play was our best in terms of generating things," Maurice said.

In Game 6, if the Hurricanes get more chances on the power play, we can expect to see a more direct approach -- with quicker puck movement and more shots on goal.

Still, Maurice wasn't too critical of his special team unit. He figures the failure to score on the two-man advantage was the only real disappointment.

"That's the one that got away," he said.

And so did Game 5.

E.J. Hradek writes hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.