I don't understand why Tlusty is still up with the Leafs. He was originally called up from the Marlies because there were missing Wellwood, Tucker and Bell from the lineup and players like Battaglia, Belak, Newbury and Gamache weren't good enough. But neither is Tlusty.
In his first game with the Leafs he scored to goals including the game winner. But remember one went in off his butt. In the next 8 games he has only managed 2 assists and has been pretty much invisible. He is averaging 11 minutes and 2 shots per game.
Wellwood, Tucker and Bell are all back so there is no reason to keep him with the big team. And he has had very little North American hockey experience outside of the 9 games with the Leafs, just 37 OHL games and 6 AHL games. The kid is not ready and history has shown you can hurt a player's development by moving him up too fast.
And the latest incident involving the posting of inappropriate photos on the Internet is a good excuse to drop him from the big team away from the media. When was the last time a reporter showed up at a Marlie practice. I would ship his butt (bare or otherwise) back to the Marlies without haste for some maturing.
12 years ago
