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Toronto Maple Leafs David Clarkson poses during a shoot at training camp in Toronto on Thursday September 18, 2013.The Canadian Press

If David Clarkson can avoid becoming a victim of human nature again there is no reason he still can't make a success with his hometown team.

One year ago, he came to his first Toronto Maple Leafs training camp armed with a new seven-year, $36.75-million (all currency U.S.) contract, determined to show everyone from his family and friends in suburban Mimico to the fans downtown at the Air Canada Centre he was going to make a difference. With six NHL seasons under his belt with the New Jersey Devils, Clarkson insisted he was experienced enough to resist trying to do too much to live up to that big contract and stick to the blue-collar hockey that made him a solid pro.

But human nature is a powerful force to resist. In a preseason game against the Buffalo Sabres at the ACC, Clarkson jumped over the bench and skated into an altercation between star teammate Phil Kessel and Sabres gorilla John Scott. Under NHL rules that meant an automatic 10-game suspension to start the 2013-14 season and everything unravelled from there.

Injuries, another suspension, more injuries and a mysterious inability to jell with his new run-and-gun teammates, who played nothing like the grinding defensive system the Devils employ, left Clarkson with five goals and six assists in 60 games. He became the punch-line and punching bag on all media platforms for the Leafs' late-season collapse.

Another injury slowed him down when training camp opened nine days ago, one the team called "lower body." But Clarkson was more eager than apprehensive ahead of his preseason debut Friday night in Buffalo in the Leafs' 6-4 win over the Sabres. And it wasn't just because Scott no longer plays for them.

"I'm excited for all this to start up," he said. "You know what? You always learn from things, good and bad. Sometimes when you go through tough times you learn more."

Clarkson calls last season "a nightmare" and admits at least part of his optimism about this season is fuelled by the thought things could certainly not get any worse. He is also buoyed by the arrival of his first son and second child early in the summer.

"I was pretty down and I think when you have a baby boy that picks you up," Clarkson said. "It really gave me that jump-start to get going again."

Among the lessons learned during the trials of last season was how supportive his family and friends were. The most important one, though, was the need to get back to the kind of grinding game he played with the Devils around the net and along the boards. He will be given a long chance to do that for centre Nazem Kadri and left winger Joffrey Lupul on the second line.

"I've had a pretty good career so far and I've got to get back to doing what I was doing [in New Jersey]," Clarkson said.

He is unlikely to get back to scoring 30 goals like he did in 2011-12. Eight of those goals came on the power play and Clarkson probably will not get enough time on the Leafs power play to pad his total. But as long as he can produce something around 20 goals management should be happy.

One thing going for him despite the training-camp injury is his health. The last injury Clarkson suffered last season was a cut on his left elbow that turned into trouble with a bursa sac. It dogged him for the last quarter of the season and once again human nature was a problem. With the contract and now a bad season hanging over him, Clarkson did not want to take himself out of the lineup and more bad hockey followed. But surgery right after the season and a quick recovery restored his optimism.

"The big thing for me was getting healthy before I started training," he said. "I feel great right now.

"When I did my elbow and played with it for 15, 20 games, I realized I had to get it operated on. I wasn't playing like myself. Any time a guy touched me I could barely shoot the puck."

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