Mike Commodore Versus Mike Babcock Part Two

Mike Commodore doing the best stretch anyone has ever done just to shame Mike Babcock.

Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Commodore did an interview with Danijel Jelenek and Krešimir Biškup of KHL.hr about how he is doing in the KHL, but it turned into a story about him being the victim and the Evil Doctor Babcock being the villain of the story.

"Fifteen minutes into free agency my agent calls me and tells me that Detroit called. They offered me a contract. I had a bad history with Mike Babcock, I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He tried and succeeded in burying me in the minors in my third pro year, but I got out of it. I wanted nothing to do with him."

Mike Babcock and Mike Commodore butted head once before in Anaheim, the break up was messy and lead to Commodore blasting Babcock in the papers, but do not worry because Commodore was the victim.

The interview continued about how he called up Ken Holland and Mike Babcock and asked both of them if they wanted him on the team or if it was just Holland who wanted to add him to the roster. Both Babcock and Holland assured him that they wanted on the team, but he was still skeptical.

"I hung up the phone, five minutes left. My gut screamed “Say No!” This coach screwed me over nine years ago, I chewed him up in the papers… But I started to think about Detroit, a good team, and about maybe getting the opportunity. I signed the contract, thirty minutes into free agency."

But he still signed and then everything went wrong for him; he was hurt during Training Camp and then became a healthy scratch.

"I went to camp in Detroit, and got scratched out. I did injure my knee a bit so I missed couple of days in camp and the first four games. I got back as if it was nothing major. I came back, and the team won its first five games. I got scratched, but okay, the team was winning. We lost seven in a row, then I wasn’t even close to playing. Scratch, scratch. Finally, it was mid-November, Ian White got a puck to the face and was going to miss a week, we went on a road trip. A four-game road trip, and I thought to myself that this was my chance. I played three games, no two games, I think, three minutes a night… The only time I touched the ice was when the fourth line was on, and the faceoff was in the neutral zone. I was opening the doors for Lidström, that’s all I was doing, being a cheerleader."

To Commodore’s credit he was a very good cheerleader. But then destruction came and Mike Babcock started to actively try to end Mike Commodore’s career in the NHL, in Commodore’s mind that is.

"Bab then met with me, said he was calling up guys from minors, and scratched me until Christmas. Then the GM forced the coach to play me; I played fifteen games, I fought, I played the best I could with the ice time I was getting. And then I got traded (to Tampa) because Ken Holland felt bad. He’s a good guy. He got me out of Detroit because Babcock was trying to end my career."

Nice man, Ken Holland, found out a way to get Commodore away from the Evil Doctor by sending him to Tampa Bay.

Mike Commodore always seems to be the victim no matter what happens in his career, either coaches are jealous of his success or they doing like him because he is single, but the only common denominator in every equation is Mike Commodore himself.

In his 17 games with the Detroit Red Wings about 10 minutes per game, just a shade over the 3 minutes he said he played, and was only able to put up two assists.

The real reason Commodore did not play very much with Detroit is because he did not have anything left in the tank. He was slow, did not try to fit into the system, and all he was good for was nothing, except a fight or two.

Kyle Quincey, Brendan Smith, and Jakub Kindl beat him out of the spot and that was because Mike Commodore did not work for it, he thought it was his spot and if he was not playing there then he was the victim, everyone was coming after him and he did nothing wrong.

In Tampa Bay he did not fare much better, he play a total of 13 games and produced zero points before being bench for a younger defenseman.

Mike Commodore might think he is the victim in these circumstances, but the only victims were the players out on the ice with him and the fans who had to watch him.