Matt Poitras called out by his coach at World Juniors.

The Boston Bruins have allowed rookie sensation Matthew Poitras to take a leave of absence from the team in order to represent his home country of Canada at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championship of Hockey.

The Bruins’ decision to allow Poitras to travel to the event was twofold, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the young man and the Bruins are no doubt also hopeful that a best on best international tournament will help accelerate the young forward’s development, but unfortunately things have gotten off to something of a rough start for Poitras.

Head coach Alan Letang did not mince words on Saturday when he called out Poitras’ poor performance since joining the Canadians in preparation for the official tournament, indicating that he expects more out of the 19 year old rookie.

“I expect him to be better,” said Letang. “He probably expects himself to be better. We know he’ll be better.”

For what it’s worth Poitras himself admitted that he did not have a strong performance on the ice, and the blame isn’t entirely on the player. Poitras was a late arrival in Sweden for the event, with most of his peers having more time to adjust to the different time zone, and it seems very likely that jet lag played a factor in Poitras’ underwhelming performance.

“Legs didn’t feel great, but just keep building,” said Poitras.

Letang indicated that most of the other players needed 2-3 days to properly adjust and get back to their normal level of play, and no doubt the expectation now is that the same will be true for Poitras. The pressure will be on as the Bruins rookie continues through the international tournament.