Hello Finger, goodbye Tlusty

Jeff Finger is ready to play. Jason Blake is apparently out of the doghouse. Jiri Tlusty has been sent to the minors. And Carlo Colaiacovo seems to be in danger of taking up permanent residence beside the nearly-forgotten Ian White.

It was another day in Leafland, another day of pulling strings, making moves as patient GM Cliff Fletcher shops around his excess defencemen.

Fletcher said he'd hold on to his blueliners "until somebody blows us away with something that may appeal to us. We're wide open. Obviously, we know what we have, and we're going to take advantage of it at the appropriate time.

"We know they're NHL defencemen. I'm not saying who we'd move," added Fletcher, who said he had "preliminary" talks with his colleagues at the GM's meetings in Chicago earlier this week. "We'll listen to anything anyone has had to offer and go from there."

Tlusty, the Leafs' 20-year-old sophomore winger, knew something was up yesterday when he wore the same green jersey Blake and Matt Stajan had worn prior to their one-game status as healthy scratches.

"Everybody's worried about his spot (in the lineup) if you're wearing a green jersey," said Tlusty, who spoke to reporters before his demotion was confirmed. "I'm worried about playing hard because I didn't play well. I understand why I'm wearing the green jersey. I didn't play well the last two games. That's what happens. I have to start doing things better."

Moving Tlusty did not require waivers and alleviated the roster pressure with Finger being reactivated.

"He hasn't been getting things done," Fletcher said of Tlusty. "It might do him some good to get down there, play a few games. He'll work his way back up here, for sure."

Finger, the Leafs' $14 million free agent defenceman, is fully healed from a broken bone in his foot.

"I would have played the first day I skated, if it was up to me, but it's not up to me," said Finger, eager to show fans his physical style of play. "It's been a little bit frustrating. That's the game and that's life and that's how it goes."

Fletcher said Finger and Blake were expected to play tonight against the Ottawa Senators. His activation leaves the Leafs with three extra skaters - the roster limit of 23 - but all of them are defencemen. It will be a game-day decision for coach Ron Wilson to decide which defenceman who played in Boston will sit alongside Colaiacovo and White.

There was supposed to have been some kind of rotation among defencemen, in Wilson's words, to keep everyone a bit unhappy rather have one player really angry. But Colaiacovo is quietly seething.

While reporters gathered to speak with Finger, Mike Van Ryn and Luke Schenn - Colaiacovo's body language was sullen. Wilson acknowledged Colaiacovo has been to his office to find out what it is he's done to deserve being benched.

"I've talked to Carlo. He's got to keep working for when his chance comes," said Wilson. "We win a game, we play well defensively, it's hard to crack the lineup.

"There's always going to be lots of injuries. You don't get down, you get ready. If you get an opportunity and you've been pouting, you're only going to let yourself down when you get back in there."

Wilson said it's difficult to change a lineup that's winning. Van Ryn has played two solid games since his benching, and now is the team's leading scorer among defencemen. Anton Stralman - another sophomore who could be sent down without clearing waivers - is second with three points.

"I'd look at it as a healthy competition," Finger said of the nine-man, blue-line corps. "Some guys might look at it as another way. It's the business. That's the way it goes."

Van Ryn, who spent nine months training hard while recuperating from a wrist injury, was upset to have been a healthy scratch earlier. But he understood.

"They're going to play whoever they want to play," said Van Ryn.