Mike Commodore’s season in Detroit is off to a bad start as the Commodore 64 (er... 22) is headed to injured reserve with a bruised MCL and could miss up to three weeks. In his place, Brendan Smith gets the call from the AHL to take his spot. There’s a bit of a catch here, however.
Smith returns to the NHL with a five-game suspension to serve thanks to his head shot on Chicago’s Ben Smith. The Smith-on-Smith crime was also going to be punished in the AHL for Brendan as he was going to miss the first three games of the Grand Rapids Griffins’ season. Now he’ll get to tick off the games on his Shanaban while Commodore is on the shelf.
As it was for Detroit, Jakub Kindl was getting the start on the blue line in Commodore’s stead and Smith gets to have a nice view of the Red Wings games from the press box. If Smith is still around after five games and Kindl struggles on the blue line, we could see Smith get a shot at playing. Here’s to hoping he can keep his shoulders and elbows in check should he get the chance to make his NHL debut soon.