Joffrey Lupul to miss beginning of regular season
The Anaheim Ducks have announced that forward Joffrey Lupul will not be ready for the start of the regular season. The 26-year-old winger had a reoccurrence of a blood infection in his back and was forced to stop off-season training. The infection is thought to be related to a herniated disk Lupul suffered last season, which limited the youngster to only 23 games in 2009-10.
Lupul said of the infection, “It’s really frustrating. I haven’t played hockey in a long time. I was hoping to be ready on day one of camp. But now my focus has changed. I want to get rid of this. I’m very confident I can get back playing and playing well.”
The Anaheim Ducks will miss Lupul who contributes a great deal on offence when healthy. The Ducks struggled with second unit production last season, which was partially due to injuries to both Lupul, and Teemu Selanne, both which slot in on the second line. Lupul is a 20-30 goal scorer when fit; scoring punch the Ducks were hoping to get back for the 2010-11 campaign.
There has been plenty of speculation about Paul Kariya joining the squad in order to play with Selanne one more time before he retires. Certainly the Lupul injury will put more pressure of the Ducks management to make a move to sign the unrestricted free agent.
It was not made clear how long Lupul would be out for as doctors cannot specify how long it will take to fight off the infection. Furthermore, Lupul will still have to get back into regular season shape when he is fit enough skate again. Missing all of his off-season on-ice training, as well as camp, and pre-season will put Lupul well behind the eight-ball whenever he returns.
Last season with the Ducks Lupul scored 10 goals and 4 assists for 14 points.
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