The Toronto media has always been one of the tougher cookies to crack. It’s sort of like Frank Sinatra’s vision of New York City; If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Mike Babcock certainly knew this when he took over the head coaching job of the Maple Leafs.
Down 0-2-0 in his first week on the job, perhaps it’s still a little too early to judge him just yet. The team on the ice is not very good to begin with and even with an established winning coach in Babcock, things don’t change overnight.
Don’t tell that to former Red Wings defenseman Mike Commodore though. Read more for how the 35-year old openly rips his former coach.
Friday night, while the Leafs were assuming their natural position of NHL doormat, Commodore took to his Twitter account to bring the offense that Babcock had been hoping to see from his top-six. (WARNING: The language is as colorful as Commodore’s afro once was)
3-0 nothin Babs you posing arrogant piece of shit. Welcome back to the rink where everyone that met you hates you. ?
— Mike Commodore (@commie22) October 10, 2015
Normally, when a public figure that is on celebrity status goes on a rant like this, the tweets vanish after a short while. The owner of the account claims the tweets were not his/hers and that they had been hacked. Commodore joined that list… or so we thought.
Hello, This account has been hacked. Please disregard all tweets. — Mike Commodore (@commie22) October 10, 2015
Instead, he took the chance to troll onlookers even further.
Wait a sec. It hasn’t been hacked. Mike Babcock is a piece of shit. Go Wings!! ? MC
— Mike Commodore (@commie22) October 10, 2015
As the tweets continued to roll in, Commodore directed his fun towards fans who answered him, either telling them where they could stick it or launching an array of profanity at their general direction. He also took the time to give a retweet to the public who joined in on the fun or made light humor of what he was doing. I guess that’s something, right?
There is a long list of responses, most which include the four letter word he loves to use and his wish to see Babcock one day get hit by a truck. In case you’re wondering if this is an elaborate hack by some lonely schmuck living in his mother’s basement, take into account that there is a history of hatred and bitterness in Mike Commodore when it comes to Babcock. In an interview posted two years ago, Commodore relived his experience under the coaching ways of Mike Babcock:
“They offered me a one-year deal worth one million. My gut was screaming: “Don’t take it, you’ve got one chance, if it doesn’t go well, you’re done in the NHL!”
“I told my agent: ‘I don’t want to play in Detroit for Mike Babcock, I don’t trust him. Call him back and tell him thank you, we’ll get back to you.’
“My agent then told me the GM put a 15-minute time limit on the offer. I needed to make up my mind in 15 minutes or he was gonna pull the offer off the table. This was July 1st, free agency had just started 10 minutes prior. I called the GM and told him: ‘Ken, Mike Commodore here, I like you, you’re a good guy. Is it you who wants me or the coach?’ Ken Holland said that he wanted me and so did Babcock. So I told him that I would love to play for Ken, and I would love to play for the red wings, but that I didn’t trust the coach from previous experience. So I called the coach, by now I had 10 minutes left.
“I called him: ‘Babs, Mike Commodore here. Please be honest with me, do you want me on your hockey team or not?’ He said he did. I wanted to know if I’d get an opportunity. I told him I am not looking for anything special, but that I needed to know if I was gonna get a fair shot and a chance to play. He said ‘I want you on my team. You will get a fair chance. We need someone physical on the back end with a right shot. I want you. You will play.’
“I hung up the phone, five minutes left. My gut screamed ‘Say No!’ This coach screwed me over nine years ago. He buried me in the paper after I had a good camp in Anaheim. He buried me so I would look bad so he could then play his boy from juniors who was an undrafted rookie at camp that year … Kurt Sauer. Six years later when I finally had a chance to take a shot back at him publicly I did so in the paper when I was in Columbus. But then I started to think about Detroit, a good team, always makes the playoffs, get to play with great players, and about maybe getting the opportunity. So I took Mike Babcock’s word and I signed the contract, thirty minutes into free agency. I signed the [expletive] contract faster than when I was a ‘hot commodity’ four years earlier. I was one of the first players gone that year in free agency. Off the board July 1st.
“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.
“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.”
Maybe the anger is justified, but was an assault on social media really the remedy to solve all of this? What do you think of the tweets posted by Mike Commodore, and this multi-year grudge? Let us know in the comments below.
Main Photo:
Interview courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.
