Joffrey Lupul on Toronto woes, Jack White, playing guitar (Puck Daddy Interview)
NASHVILLE – Hockey players often follow the company line, even in bad times.
Sometimes you get a guy or two willing to speak his mind, but ultimately a lot is cliché, and little insight gets shared into a losing locker room. Normally it’s after the season or after a major change when a player finally opens up.
Not Toronto forward Joffrey Lupul. It’s pretty clear that this season has dragged on the former All-Star forward. Never mind the lower body injury and broken hand that have caused him to miss 23 games total this year.
It’s the losing mixed with the winning, mixed with coaching upheaval and then losing. And Lupul (who has 17 points in 28 games) is stuck on this downward heading ship, under contract with Toronto for the next three seasons.
He’s not say, a guy like pending unrestricted free agent Cody Franson, who could get a proverbial ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card to go to a contender then pick where he wants to go in the offseason.
We caught up with Lupul before the Maple Leafs played the Predators to talk about a much-needed reset day in the Music City and his concerns about the Leafs moving forward.
Q: How do you guys block out trade talk and contract talk in Toronto, especially this year with so much disruption?
(Lupul): There’s so many rumors and so many different stories every day, it almost goes the opposite way where you don’t even hear it. If your name is mentioned in a trade … every guy in here has been mentioned in a trade rumor three times this year so it’s almost like you don’t even hear that anymore. It’s more fun for us to be out on the road right now to be honest. It takes a little bit of the pressure off. Toronto is not the most fun city right now for some of us, so to be out on the road with the guys seems like a relief for some of the guys in here. But again, it’s going to be a frustrating rest of the season unless we find a way to turn our game around. It’s going to be tough, if we don’t start getting some wins, to start seeing guys being moved out for draft picks and things like that is certainly not the way you want your season to go, especially this early on in the year. Hopefully we can get a couple of wins together here and get some positive momentum.
How has the season gone for you personally?
It has been really frustrating for me personally. I’ve had two injuries. One I think I missed three weeks, one I missed four, so that’s really frustrating and just the fact that when we were coming back over the Christmas break I was really excited about the possibilities for us in the second half, then I got injured on New Year’s Eve and then just came back a game or two ago. Now we’re in a different situation. That’s tough that way, when things start to slide downhill and you’re on the sidelines, it’s not a very good feeling. It’s a real helpless feeling.
What are your personal goals the rest of the year?
It’s tough for me to say right now. It’s tough to say what direction this team is going to go. I don’t know … what’s happening right now? Our goal is to play better hockey and win some games. It’s not a good feeling when it’s February and you’re starting hear ‘this guy is unrestricted so we’re going to ship him out of town for a draft pick.’ I’ve been in this situation once before when I played for Edmonton and it’s not a very fun situation to see new faces in the locker room every day. Obviously it’s quite a long-shot right now, but we won nine games in a row this year at one point. It’s not like this group isn’t capable of it. It’s going to take a lot, but as soon as you start giving up that hope, that’s when I think management sees that and that’s when you start losing guys like Cody Franson and (Mike) Santorelli and (Daniel) Winnik and guys who are one one-year deals. That’s not a good feeling.
The last couple of days, you guys have seemed pretty loose. Considering all that has gone on this year. Why is that?
Well, these last two days were good for us. We haven’t been happy with our performance the last little while. You still have to come in with a positive attitude and having a day off in Nashville for the Super Bowl (Sunday) and having some fun with the guys was certainly a positive thing. Hopefully that helps loosen the guys up a bit and we can come out here with a good effort and play with good confidence.
As off-day cities go, this seems like a pretty good one. People leave you guys alone and players seem to enjoy the music.
It’s a great city. It was a fun place for the (Super Bowl) Sunday and we got to see some live music. I’m a big Jack White fan so I was at Third Man Records yesterday. I bought some records and fooled around with some of the stuff.
I’m not a huge country music fan. I do like going to some of the bars down the strip and watching and listening to some of the music. It’s a great city. It’s a fun city. People are great, super welcoming and it’s certainly one of the most fun cities on the road. And you’re pretty much anonymous here so that’s nice too.
What do you do to hit the reset button when you’re at home and drown out the noise?
I play guitar a lot. It’s good for me. I heard there’s a couple feet of snow there now that wasn’t there when we left, so that’s what I’ll be doing for the next little while.
Who is your favorite guitarist?
I’m a big Jack White fan, so I got a chance to meet him and hang out a bit when they played in Toronto, so that was pretty cool.
Are you a Clapton guy or a Hendrix guy? If you play guitar you have to pick.
I’d have to say I’m more of a Hendrix guy, but I respect both of their abilities. If I was to put on a record, I would pick a Hendrix record over Eric Clapton.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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