[Flash Walken]

You'll recall that David Clarkson missed the first 10 games of last season because he did a dumb thing: He left the bench to join in the fracas caused by John Scott trying to fight Phil Kessel.

Not the best way to start a contract that, at the time of its signing was widely viewed — and then over the following 82 games repeatedly verified — as being the worst in the league by a pretty wide margin. Between suspension and injury last year, Clarkson ended up missing a whopping 22 of the Leafs' season; and when he was on the ice he served as a horrible drag on pretty much everyone.

But okay, this kind of thing happens a lot. Guy signs a big new contract (in Clarkson's case it's seven years at $5.25 million per against the cap) in a high-pressure climate like Toronto and stumbles a bit. Maybe you can even accuse the guy of trying to do too much, and that's why he was so bad. Yeah, you don't want a big-money player playing only 60 games, nor scoring just 11 points in those 60, but it happens.

So the Toronto media — bafflingly — seemed willing to forgive and forget for the horrible disappointment this nearly $37 million man brought to His Hometown Team The Toronto Maple Leafs. There were plenty of stories ahead of training camp that Clarkson was now focused completely on turning things around.

Then the Leafs started practicing. Just a little while into into pre-camp workouts (which, it seems to me, kind of counts as camp), he picked up a minor injury and missed a few days. He came back in a preseason game against the Sabres on Friday night and even picked up a goal and an assist

But then this other thing happened. Early in the third period, for no readily apparent reason whatsoever, Clarkson saw fit to clash a little bit after a whistle with Cody McCormick, a borderline NHLer who figured fighting someone — anyone dumb enough to engage him — would help him earn a spot on the team.

So they ended up fighting. Clarkson ended up getting his lunch fed to him, and went to the box rubbing his cheek a little bit. He also ended up missing the rest of the game, and may or may not have had his eye swollen shut. Two days later, he ended up seeing a specialist to have a closer look at that cheek, and now he might be out for the start of the season in another week and a half or so.

His coach was asked after the game whether Clarkson should be engaging in a fight with anyone, let alone a known pugilist like McCormick, given his particular set of unique circumstances such as “trying to prove he's not the biggest waste of money in the league” (a crown he holds despite Brooks Orpik's best efforts). Here's Carlyle not-choosing his words all that carefully:

[ ]

“I guess that’s a question. There are certain times where you’re better suited to turn the other cheek depending on the opponent and whatnot.”

“I guess that's *A* question,” indeed.

Leafs fans are very rightly upset that this contract even exists, and to see this player going out there and doing something this dumb must make them want to hike an hour or two out into the woods and just scream for a while. This is the second preseason in a row in which Clarkson has gotten in a stupid, pointless fight against the Sabres in the preseason and put at least part of the regular season in jeopardy for himself. Now, you could argue that if Clarkson were to hold himself out of the lineup for 82 games a year, that would be all fine and dandy; the Leafs wouldn't miss him because he's not very good. But he's still pulling more than $5 million a season to make these decisions, and that's money the Leafs can't spend otherwise.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...080636708.html