First I saw this tweet.

Then I wrote this tweet.

Two years and one day ago, I wrote this incredibly naive, painfully optimistic garbage pile about David Clarkson during his 10-game suspension for leaving the bench to fight John Scott.

It seems so distant but the David Clarkson wound in Toronto is still quite fresh. It might be a bit more fair to refer to it as the Dave Nonis wound.

I remember not wanting the Leafs to go after Clarkson in free agency because of the enormous price tag he was rightly predicted to get. Less than two years later, I was over the moon when I found out the Leafs had traded him for Nathan Horton, who may never play again.

I thought the Clarkson signing was bad, lots of Leafs fans thought it was bad, and virtually any stats blogger you could find said it was bad. Did anybody think it would end up being that bad?

Here’s the video I made the day Toronto’s top water bottle cop was traded. The video may have swearing in it, so if you’re at work, just be aware of that.

In a post I wrote leading up to Brad Boyes’ long-awaited debut with the Leafs, I wrote that Brad Boyes has more points in 36 career games against the Leafs (27) than David Clarkson had in 108 games for the Leafs (26). That’s all kinds of bad. Yet I kind of feel bad for ripping on the guy.

Of the 108 games Clarkson played, it’s anyone’s guess as to how many of them he was actually 100 per cent healthy for.

Who knows how long his left elbow was bothering him and to what extent. Whatever the case was, it definitely wasn’t meant to be in Toronto.

Is it meant to be in Columbus for Clarkson? Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen was on Sportsnet 590 the Fan today and it sounds like that, or any solution at this point, would be a nice change of pace.

Maybe after this game, we can stop talking about former Leaf David Clarkson…

…and move right onto talking about former Leaf Phil Kessel tomorrow.