Things haven’t been going well for Joffrey Lupul, and things got worse Wednesday during the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 4-3 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres.
A sloppy turnover from Lupul contributed to the Sabres’ second goal, one of several things Maple Leafs interim head coach Peter Horachek disliked about Lupul’s performance.
Lupul was benched for the first 12 minutes of the third period and demoted to the fourth line with Zach Sill and Brandon Kozun. He only registered three shifts in the final frame, didn’t see any action in overtime and wasn’t selected to take part in the shootout. Not the type of performance Horachek expects from a top-six forward.
“Joffrey turned the puck over a few times and he let [a] guy go on the back-check going back to the net, gave him a chance,” Horachek told reporters after the game. “The guy could’ve scored.”
The 31-year-old finished the game with one shot, a minus-1 rating and only 13:09 of ice-time. He has just two assists in his last 16 games and hasn’t scored a goal since Dec. 29.
“There was two, three, four things that I didn’t think was up to his standards,” Horachek added. “I didn’t think that he was on top of his game.”
Lupul and the Maple Leafs visit the streaking Calgary Flames Friday. It’s unclear at this point which line the winger will play on.
