When Joffrey Lupul looks around the Maple Leafs’ dressing room, he gets the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the team won’t fare this season as badly as most expect.

In fact, he figures there’s more to this roster than meets the eye.

“I’m really happy with the group they’ve put together,” said Lupul. “A lot of experience. We’ve got the possibility to surprise some people. But it’s not going to come easy, it’s going to take a lot of work.”

The Leafs suffered their first loss of the pre-season, dropping a 6-4 decision to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night at the ACC. Nazem Kadri, Stuart Percy, Matt Frattin and Daniel Winnik scored for the Leafs, who squandered a 3-1 second-period lead.

It’s only pre-season, but the Leafs seem to have adhered to new coach Mike Babcock’s demand for a work ethic and a high compete level while the team learns his new systems.

“The goal you want to set is to be in the playoffs,” said Lupul, who scored twice in his first game. “That’s every team’s goal. Short-term, right now, it’s getting better each day, learning the new system, playing better as individuals, making sure we’re ready for the start of the season.”

If the Leafs are going to surprise and have some success — as Lupul and others in the dressing room believe — then it may lie with Lupul to stay healthy and produce to his abilities.

“We always thought he was effective when he played against us when he was healthy,” said Babcock. “He can skate, he can be physical, he can shoot the puck, he’s tenacious, he works.”

Lupul scored only 10 goals — he has scored at least 20 in a season five times — and played just 55 games last season. Staying healthy, a knee injury bothered him last year, has been his biggest issue. Fitness is the key, says Babcock.

“If you work as hard has he has this summer, you’re way more likely to be more fortunate injury-wise,” said Babcock. “If you’re playing hard and you live right, you tend to reap the benefits.

“He’s come to camp in shape. He says he has everything off the ice in shape, which is really important. You can’t perform on the ice if you don’t have everything off the ice looked after. He’s trained well all summer.”

In many ways, the Leafs will be compared to the Sabres, deemed to be a year or two ahead of Toronto in the rebuilding process.

The Sabres have been at the bottom of the standings the past couple of seasons, netting themselves a pair of No. 2 overall picks: Sam Reinhart in 2014 and Jack Eichel this summer.

In that same time frame, the Leafs picked eight overall in 2014 (William Nylander) and fourth this summer (Mitch Marner).

The Leaf rebuild is still underway. You can tell by the kind of players they brought in, pluggers largely, either on one-year deals or one year left or professional tryouts.

Leaf fans might look to P.A. Parenteau to replace Phil Kessel’s scoring, or Shawn Matthias to add some grit, or Matt Hunwick to move the puck. But they’re really just holding roster spots.

The Sabres, by comparison, brought in some bona fide talent — Ryan O’Reilly at centre, Evander Kane at wing, Cody Franson on defence — because their prospects appear ready to play.

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Still, the highly competitive nature of the Leafs camp — precisely because there are so many veterans playing for contracts — is the source of the hope within the team.

“There’s a lot of optimism in here,” said forward Mark Arcobello. “The way camp is going so far, there’s a lot of competition. That should only help the feel at the start of the season.

“There are a lot of young guys, a lot of opportunity. With competition within the team, it’s going to get the best out of guys. If guys put their best foot forward right away, and ride momentum into the beginning of the season, it’s always a good thing.”

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