o Maple Leafs skating instructor Barb Underhill and

TORONTO -- Dogged by injuries last season, Joffrey Lupul seemed to be fine over the summer. He worked with Toronto Maple Leafs skating instructor Barb Underhill and Anaheim Ducks strength and conditioning coach Sean Skahan and went to training camp hoping to participate. Instead, back spasms prevented Lupul from being cleared to skate on the first day of on-ice activities. "Hes had some back issues before, so we dont think its anything long term," coach Randy Carlyle said. "Its just precautionary measures to make sure that hes 100 per cent." Carlyle said that Lupuls back tightened up Tuesday, the day before players reported to take physicals. Like Lupul, enforcer Colton Orr was not cleared and is expected to be off the ice for a week. Orr, who played 44 games last season and had a league-high 155 penalty minutes, has a bone bruise on his leg. Lupul is entering the first year of a US$26.25-million contract. The 29-year-old left-winger missed all but 16 regular-season games last year because of a broken right arm and a concussion. Carlyle didnt appear to be overly worried about Lupuls absence, but he didnt brush it off either. "Theres always concern when a player gets hurt. Its one of those things that he looked extremely well coming up to camp, and its unfortunate that this thing happened," Carlyle said. "Hes put a lot of work in over the summer and looked very energized and very, very fit to come and play, but injuries are all part of it." Neither Lupul nor Orr spoke to reporters Thursday. Defensive prospects Matt Finn and Kenny Ryan also did not skate. Finn suffered a shoulder injury over the weekend at the rookie tournament the Maple Leafs hosted in London, Ont. Swell Liberty Water Bottle . Cox started the season with San Francisco, but was released by the team on Nov. 12 before being signed by Seattle, where he appeared in two games and tallied three tackles before being released on Dec. Swell Traveler Uk . Rosbergs time of 1 minute, 33.185 seconds at the Bahrain International Circuit was a quarter of a second faster than Hamilton, who had to abandon his final flying lap after running wide at the first corner. http://www.swellbottleuk.com/ . According to a release sent by the league, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were the only team to exceed the cap. Their total salary expenditure of $4,417,975 was $17,975 over the salary cap of $4. Swell Wood Bottle . When Reyes signed a US$106-million, six-year deal with Miami last month, there was speculation Ramirez was unhappy about being supplanted at short. But new manager Ozzie Guillen sold Ramirez on the idea. Swell Bottle Sale 17 Oz . -- Mississippi State was crushed twice by Florida last season, once by 35 points and the other by 25.It took the Leafs 7:19 before they were finally able to register a shot on goal against the Florida Panthers - a harmless drive from the point by Carl Gunnarsson. The shot clock then read 9-1. It was a sign of things to come. By the time the first period had ended, the clock read 19-4. After forty minutes: 37-12, yet remarkably the Maple Leafs still had a chance to win, solely due to Jonathan Bernier, who, among other examples, denied Jonathan Huberdeau and Scottie Upshall on clear cut breakaways. "We didnt really have anything going other than one person in the line up who was outstanding for our hockey club and it was our goaltender," said a baffled Randy Carlyle. "We just didnt seem to have any jump or any passion to play the game and its kind of mind boggling right now." Jesse Winchester eventually put the Panthers up 2-0 before David Clarkson finally got the Leafs on the board, scoring his fourth goal of the season. But four minutes later, Shawn Matthias restored the Panthers two goal lead, putting the game out of reach. "Those are wasted efforts as youd call them," Carlyle explained. "Over the course of the season when you get an effort like that from your goaltender, its a like a pitcher throwing a no hitter. Thats the same analogy that you use when you have a performance like he was supporting our group with tonight." It marked the third straight game against the Panthers this season that the Maple Leafs got out to a poor start. A 3-1 loss on December 17th reflected a similarly uninspired effort. Last week, the Leafs were able to overcome an early 2-0 deficit but there would be no improvement found on this occasion as they went on to fall 4-1 to Florida. "The first ten minutes we were just standing around and they were jumping by us," said Carlyle. "It was like we werent engaged in the hockey game at all." Five Points 1) Raymond Calls Loss The Worst Effort of the Season While the Leafs have suffered worse losses this season – 6-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 25th, 7-1 to the New York Rangers on Jan. 4 and 7-1 to the Dallas Stars on January 23rd – Mason Raymond suggest he felt tonights effort fell to the lowest hed seen it so far. "No excuse for the way we played, weve had a few tough games this year but I dont think anywhere as this bad," said Raymond. "We were outplayed almost in all aspects of the game." In terms of lessons to be learned, just moving on, Raymond said, might be the best way to go. "Im sure well do a little reflecting on it but I think its one you flush pretty quick and move on," the 28 year old explained. "Those were important points that we let slip away and thats unfortunate." 2) Carlyle Juggles The Lines After two periods of lethargic play, Randy Carlyle opted to shuffle his lines, looking for any kind of a spark with the Leafs still within striking distance. "Just tried to get something going because we had nothing going and just pleading to the group that we have a goaltender thats standing on his head here and its a 1-0 hockey game, tried to give ourselves a chance with a decent period to steal some points," explained the head coach. The move worked, at least temporarily, leading to David Clarksons goal on a nifty set up from Nazem Kadri. Start of the Game James Van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak- Phil KesselJoffrey Lupul - Nazem Kadri - Nikolai KuleminMason Raymond - Jay McClement - David ClarksonTroy Bodie - Jerred Smithson - Colton Orr Third Period Joffrey Lupul - Tyler Bozak - Phil KesselJames Van Riemsdyk - Nazem Kadri - David ClarksonMason Raymond - Jay McClement - Nikolai KuleminTroy Bodie - Jerred Smithson - Colton Orr 3) Gardiners Fight Marks An NHL First A pair of unlikely combatants, Jake Gardiner and Jonathan Huberdeau dropped the gloves 6:31 into the second period in a fight that was more of a wrestling match than a typical NHL scrap. "It wasnt much of a fight," said Gardiner. "Stuff happens in the game, you get emotional and sometimes you have to fight." Just how unlikely was it for Gardiner to find himself in a scrap? To the best of his recollection, he could only come up with one other instance where he dropped the gloves. "It was in practice when I was in college (at the Univversity of Wisconsin), it was a while back," Gardiner recalled.dddddddddddd 4) Clarkson Hoping To Hit "Reset Button" After missing the first ten games of the season due to a suspension, another two contests in mid-December to a second suspension, a game on January 7th against the Islanders because of a foot injury and most recently, eight games because of an elbow injury, David Clarkson marked his fourth separate return to the line up on Tuesday against the Panthers. With 25 games left to go, Clarkson is looking to hit the reset button and put all his nagging issues behind him. "Im hoping, Ive had a chance to hit that button a couple times," said Clarkson, who has just four goals and five assists in 37 games. Coach Randy Carlyle insisted patience is the right approach for Clarkson, who seems like he has continually been trying, unsuccessfully so far, to live up to massive expectations this season. "I dont want to put too much emphasis on Clarkson when a player is coming back into your line up after missing an extended period of time," said Carlyle. "Were more suited to let the player get his feet underneath him before we make these great proclamations of what hes going to do and where hes going to be at." While sitting and watching, Clarkson has admitted, is never easy for him, the Leafs solid run, going 6-1-1 in the eight games he missed made it somewhat tolerable. "The fact that weve been winning, it makes it a lot easier sitting there because youre not in the stands or after the game upset," Clarkson explained, who has watched the Leafs amass a record of 14-6-1 without him in the line up compared to 16-16-5 with him dressed. As for what set Clarksons season off on the wrong foot, Carlyle didnt have to think long for an explanation. "I think the ten game suspension obviously had an effect, simple as that," said Carlyle. 5) JVR Plays Despite Battling Flu Bug James Van Riemsdyk seems to have it all figured out. The Middletown, New Jersey native has not participated in a full practice since January 24th in Winnipeg – he left part way through on January 26th – but has not missed a game during that stretch. Last week, JVRs absence was due to an undisclosed injury. On Monday, it was a bout of the flu that forced him to miss the teams workout at MasterCard Centre and subsequent charter flight to Fort Lauderdale. But there was still one Van Riemsdyk on the teams flight on Monday; James father Frans, who accompanied the other dads on the Leafs annual fathers trip. "I made the decision to send him along on the charter so he gets that whole experience and Im sure he had a great time last night," said James. James made his way down to Florida early Tuesday morning on a 6:30am commercial flight and received well wishes from other travellers. "I got a couple tweets in the airport, a couple good lucks," he explained. Asked how his day of recovery from the flu went on Monday, James smiled, laughed and said, "I dont want to get into it." Stats Pack - 9-0: Shot total in favour of Panthers when Carl Gunnarsson registered first shot for the Leafs at the 7:19 mark of the 1st period - 19-4: Shots in favour of Panthers after 1st period - 37-12: Shots in favour of Panthers after 2nd period - 44: Stops made by Jonathan Bernier, his second highest total this season behind only the 48 stops he made on Dec. 5 against Dallas - 16:30: David Clarksons ice time in his return to the line up after an 8 game absence - 7: Hits Clarkson registered, leading the Leafs in that category - 3: Leafs win streak snapped at three games; Panthers losing streak snapped at three games - 16: Number of times the Leafs have allowed more than 40 shots - 2: The amount of power play goals the Panthers have scored in their last 53 opportunities after Tom Gilberts goal against the Leafs Quote of the night: - Mason Raymond on whether the team felt added pressure with playing in front of their fathers, who are along on the annual dads trip: "No, again, were professional athletes. Were expected to have mental preparation and be prepared for the game and we werent, we were flat from the start. Thankfully Bernie was playing well at the start or it would have been a lot worse." Up next: The Leafs are in Tampa Bay on Thursday for their second of four head to head meetings with the Lightning. Toronto won the first game on Jan. 28 3-2 at Air Canada Centre. ' ' '