The Toronto Maple Leafs' up-and-down season hit another low last night, when the club issued a release shortly after their 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens about teenager Jiri Tlusty and some compromising photos that found their way onto the Internet. The release read:

In response to media queries regarding the unauthorized positing of photographs of Jiri Tlusty on the Internet, general manager John Ferguson of the Toronto Maple Leafs issued the following statement:

"Photographs were posted recently on the Internet without Jiri's knowledge or consent. He made a naïve mistake as a teenager. It's a lesson in how something private can easily become very public in the Internet age. Hopefully it's a lesson that other people will learn from as well."

Tlusty added, "I used poor judgment in this instance last season and I have learned a valuable lesson. It will not happen again and I have no further comment."

The "last season" part means that Tlusty had these photos taken last year while he was playing with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

Anyway, what we have been able to piece together is that there were nude photographs taken of Tlusty and that somehow found their way onto a website called isthishappening.com.

The photos were taken down after a lawyer who was retained by Tlusty sent an e-mail missive to the website demanding that the pictures be taken down or there would be legal action taken. Here is a copy of the letter. 

These photos were posted on Nov. 7, and two days later the lawyer's letter was sent.

As of last night, however, there still was a picture of a smiling Tlusty being hugged by another teenager.

The website claims to have been in contact with Tlusty about the photo. Again for the alleged back-and-forth exchange, click here.