Frat Boy Commodore Does Good

At first glance, Mike Commodore looks less like an athlete and more like a guy you could hammer some beers with down on Elgin Street. He looks like the kind of dude who carries the keg on his shoulder into a house party. The kind of guy who never wears any socks and orders pizza with the change he finds in his couch cushions. He's like the hockey version of Johnny Damon or John Kruk.

But he's a surprisingly good hockey player.

And now he's finally starting to show it in a Senators uniform. Against St. Louis, Commodore was blazing into the offensive zone on numerous occasions, looking nothing like the nervous and tentative player he was in his first month with the team. More and more, he's in position to assert his strength along the boards and is somewhat deft with a breakout pass, better than advertised anyways.

It's true that he has zero points in 18 games with Ottawa, but fans and media will start to notice this guy during the playoffs where I'd put my money on him scoring a huge goal. Especially if he gets that red afro and beard going. It will look like Spartacat is patrolling the blueline except he won't be shooting hot dogs into the stands with an air bazooka during TV timeouts.

Speaking of Spartacat, have a look at this article I wrote a few years back for the Ottawa Xpress. It's a tale of a tinfoil wrapped hot dog, a bazooka ... and a human eyeball. I actually interviewed the guy who got smoked by the hot dog and it was one of the funniest pieces I ever worked on.

From the Ottawa Xpress:

"I took a hot dog bazooka right in the eye. It was wrapped in tin foil and a cup, I think, I don't know. I didn't even get the hot dog in the end. It landed in the aisle and someone must have grabbed it. The people sitting next to me were like 'Holy cow, are you all right?' because the impact was pretty loud. The ushers came down and one of them apologized to me many times. The weird thing is that they took my name and number but they never got back to me."