{"id":16436,"date":"2017-09-21T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=16436"},"modified":"2017-09-21T19:05:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T23:05:08","slug":"joffrey-lupul-apologizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/09\/21\/joffrey-lupul-apologizes\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Forces Joffrey Lupul to See Independent Doctor, Despite Lupul Not Appealing Leafs Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Update: John Shannon of Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL will have <strong>Joffrey Lupul<\/strong> see an independent doctor in order to confirm that he is injured and eligible for long-term injured reserve. The decision stems from Lupul&#8217;s recent instagram post claiming that he is healthy. The NHL made the decision, despite the fact that Lupul did not officially appeal the diagnosis or seek his own second opinion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hearing,even though Joffrey Lupul is not seeking a 2nd opinion, the NHL Is going to have him medically evaluated by an independent doctor.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John Shannon (@JShannonhl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JShannonhl\/status\/910984984588058624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here is our earlier story.<\/p>\n<h1>Joffrey Lupul Apologizes to Toronto Maple Leafs, Will Not Seek Second Opinion<\/h1>\n<p>Injured <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/maple-leafs\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> forward <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lupuljo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joffrey Lupul<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>made headlines last week when he appeared to question the team&#8217;s doctor&#8217;s opinion that he could not play hockey, and their designation that he be placed on long term injured reserve.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, Lupul backtracked on those comments. \u00a0He posted on his official <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JLupul\/status\/910656646115762176\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">twitter account<\/a> that he would not be seeking a second opinion to challenge the Leafs diagnosis. He also apologized to the team for the controversy that had been created.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I responded earlier this week to some negative comments on Instagram. It was an inappropriate response, and I deleted it, but I take full responsibility. It&#8217;s been extremely tough not being able to play over the past 1.5 years. I will not be seeking a second opinion, but I hope one day to be able to get back on the ice. I apologize to the media, fans, Leafs organization, and most of all my teammates for this unneeded distration,&#8221; Lupul posted.<\/p>\n<p>Lupul posted a photo on Instagram on Sunday of what appeared\u00a0to be him snowboarding, with the comments, &#8220;Haha failed physical? They cheat, everyone lets them,&#8221; and &#8220;I&#8217;m ready.. Just awaiting the call.&#8221; \u00a0He later deleted the comments.<\/p>\n<h2>Career<\/h2>\n<p>Lupul has not played in the NHL since mid-way through the 2015-16 season. He is in the final year of a five-year, $26.525 million dollar contract he signed with the team. The deal carries an AAV of $5.25 million, and he is due $3.75 million this season.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old right wing has played in 701 career games for the Leafs, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/ducks\/\" target=\"_self\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/flyers\/\" target=\"_self\">Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>. He has scored 205 goals and 215 assists for 420 career NHL points. Lupul has also added 17 goals and 27 points in 46 career playoff games. He has a history of a chronic back condition, though he missed the remainder of the 2015-16 season following surgery to fix a hernia.<\/p>\n<p>The deadline for Lupul to seek a second opinion through the NHLPA is Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"d8i2BkEUR1diVXsjo333jg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/462964111\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'d8i2BkEUR1diVXsjo333jg',sig:'rvzjajxGqKbfPmyrWLXUPW8xfFgpCXXmwaYqGNL_5oU=',w:'594px',h:'455px',items:'462964111',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update: John Shannon of Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL will have Joffrey Lupul see an independent doctor in order to confirm that he is injured and eligible for long-term injured reserve. The decision stems from Lupul&#8217;s recent instagram post claiming that he is healthy. The NHL made the decision, despite the fact that Lupul [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,18],"tags":[233,38,897],"class_list":["post-16436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-leafs","tag-joffrey-lupul","tag-nhl","tag-nhlpa"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}