MIKE KOMISAREK
Is working to rebuild his career on a one-year Carolina contract.
Last Saturday, for the first time in four years, Mike Komisarek wasn’t booed at the Bell Centre — a historic first for the defenceman who left the Canadiens in the summer of 2009.
But then, Komisarek watched Saturday’s game from the media gallery seven storeys above the rink, seated with a group of Carolina Hurricanes teammates. It’s not easy to boo a guy whose uniform for the night is business casual.
“I still get booed here every day,” the 31-year-old joked during a talk that overflowed the first intermission into the second period.
(Also in Quebec City, it seems, Komisarek having been heckled by Canadiens fans the night before when he played the Habs in the provincial capital.)
“But people on the streets are very nice,” he added. “That’s always been Habs fans. When you’re here, it wears on you a lot, especially during the course of the season. But at the same time, there’s probably no better place to play when you’re winning and it’s probably one of the toughest places when you’re losing.
“You’re in that fishbowl. Things are going to get overanalyzed and hypercritical. During games you could tell. Fans are your loudest supporters but your harshest critics, too, when things aren’t going well.
“That said, you go to a restaurant or a grocery store in Montreal and people are quick to shake your hand, wish you the best and offer their support. That’s what’s great about this sport and great about this city, too.”
Komisarek laughed and continued:
“I find it ironic when people boo the (heck) out of you during the game, even last night (in Quebec), then you come out of the rink and you have a million people waiting for pictures and autographs. They’re probably the same people, but that’s the game.”
Komisarek is working to rebuild his career, earning $700,000 on a one-year, unrestricted free agent’s contract signed this summer with the Hurricanes.
His very public fall from his personal summit was as dramatic as it was quick, from the NHL’s charter jets to the buses of the minor pros.
Komisarek broke into the NHL with the Canadiens, who made the native of West Islip, N.Y., their first-round draft pick (seventh overall) in 2001. On July 1, 2009, he left for the riches of Toronto.
Then-Leafs GM Brian Burke, famously seeking a little truculence for his roster, signed the 6-foot-4, 245-pound- er to a five-year, $22.5-million contract.
Komisarek had played all 361 of his NHL games for the Canadiens, and 29 more in four playoff series. Canadiens fans went nuclear on him when he signed with the loathsome Leafs for what was reported to be just $2 million more than was being offered by the Canadiens.
That the tax situation was better in Ontario than in Quebec, that the Leafs were offering an additional year of term and that Komisarek felt Toronto was a better professional fit than Montreal was irrelevant to the fans who called him a turncoat, a traitor and much worse.
The free market means nothing to a fan who feels spurned; just ask new Canadien Daniel Brière, who was tarred and feathered here in 2007 when he chose Philadelphia over Montreal.
In fact, Komisarek’s haters probably wouldn’t have cared a lick about his departure had he chosen any city but Toronto or Boston, viewed by Habs fans as the NHL’s deepest craters.
“Things happened (in Montreal) that haven’t necessarily been talked about or known,” he said cryptically, without elaboration, about his decision to leave.
“But I don’t have any regrets. It was my decision and I stuck with it, and I’m going to stand by it now. I thought it was a great opportunity to go to Toronto, obviously. I thought it would be a good fit and things just didn’t work out.
“It’s the evolution of a career, the ups and downs, and now it’s about how you respond and bounce back.”
Komisarek never took flight with the Leafs, playing 158 games from 2009 through last season. He was injured many nights, a healthy scratch for long stretches, and unceremoniously was demoted to the American League’s Toronto Marlies for a half-dozen games, back to the buses that he’d ridden with the Habs’ Hamilton Bulldogs a decade earlier.
On July 2, the Leafs finally used a compliance buyout to sweep his final year off the salary-cap books, freeing him to sign with the team of his choice.
Where Toronto’s Mikhail Grabovski was trashing Leafs coach Randy Carlyle as he, too, was bought out, Komisarek took the high road every moment of his free fall to near-oblivion.
“At the end of the day, there’s a whole variety of emotions you experience, but you just want to play the game you love,” he said. “It didn’t work out in Toronto so you focus on what got you there: hard work, staying positive, having the right attitude.
“Whining and complaining and being a bad teammate and a bad guy in the room isn’t going to get you very far. That spreads quickly. … I still wish those (Leafs) guys the best. It just didn’t work out for me.
“You always have a choice how you can handle every situation. There’s only one way I knew how to handle this: You put your head down
“It’s always special coming back here. Even when you’re
booed.”
MIKE KOMISAREK
and work through it and try to find an answer, whether there was an opportunity there or not. You sort of hope it would figure itself out.”
When it didn’t, Komisarek considered his options.
“Before the whole deadline comes around, you zero in on a couple places you have interest in and you express that to those teams. Then you wait to see if they have that same feeling about you,” he said.
“You look for that relationship. You’re looking for a partner to dance with. Carolina was obviously one of the teams on top of that list. Their offer came and there was no point in waiting around or holding out. That was it for me. I was just looking for the opportunity more than anything else.”
Komisarek and his wife of one year were looking to unpack their bags with their daughter, then not quite 2 months old. Kirk Muller, a Canadiens assistant coach during the defenceman’s final three seasons in Montreal, was running the show in Carolina. The pieces fit.
“It’s just a good, fresh start for us,” Komisarek said. “My family loves it and I hope the on-ice (performance) follows so we can have success there.”
Fatherhood, he said, is a game-changer. “It definitely puts things in perspective about what’s really important.
“When you have a great support system to fall back on, your wife and your child, it means the world. You’ve always been known for being a hockey player, a defenceman. But when you add husband and father to that, that’s what it’s all about.
“When you go through ups and downs like I’ve had the last couple of years, what’s really important at the end of the day is having family and friends help you get through it.”
The slide from the lofty, early heights of contract and popularity in Toronto to playing for a fraction of that sum in Carolina, having to prove himself again, has given Komisarek a new apprecia- tion for hockey.
“The ups and downs are the evolution of a career,” he said. “I’m still lucky and blessed to be playing a game I love for a living. It’s been great to me. I still have that competitive drive. You want to go out and win. You don’t want to just go there and play, you first and foremost want the chance to compete in the playoffs and play for a Stanley Cup.
“The longer you play, the more you realize how hard it is to get to the playoffs, and how hard it is once you get there. How difficult it is to battle through the ups and downs of a season. I had a couple of playoff experiences here in Montreal and I didn’t have any in Toronto. I know I’m in the second half of my career and I want to get back to that.”
Komisarek laughed when he reviewed his record against the Canadiens since he left here: 15 games, his first in Toronto on the overcaffeinated opening night of 2009-10 netting him 15 minutes in penalties.
Habs defenceman Andrei Markov, for a time Komisarek’s blue-line partner, suffered a lacerated foot tendon that night in a goalmouth collision with goalie Carey Price.
“I went to see Markie in the hospital after that game,” Komisarek said. “I still talk to him. I still see Markie from time to time.
“I’ve been blessed to not only play in the NHL, but to play for two storied franchises in Montreal and Toronto. Every time you come into this building, there’s always a buzz, an electricity. They’re the most passionate hockey fans in the world.”
Komisarek had goosebumps before Saturday’s opening faceoff, Canadiens legend Jean Béliveau at centre ice for a pregame ceremony.
“I was telling my teammates: ‘Guys, this is a living legend, a class act,’ ” he said. “It was great to see Mr. Béliveau out there. I was here as a young guy, and you felt like a better hockey player just shaking his hand at the rink before the game. What an amazing presence he has.”
Among Komisarek’s cherished possessions are a few milestone pucks, his 2009 AllStar Game jersey and the special Canadiens-crested jerseys he wore for the sweater retirements of several Habs legends.
“A lot of good memories, a lot of good times,” he said. “Time goes by so quick, it all seems like yesterday.
“It’s neat to play in a place that shares your passion and has the same love of the game as you. When you grow up dreaming about playing in the NHL and have people appreciate the game you love, night in and night out, it’s just a great feeling.”
Komisarek looked out over Bell Centre ice, many overhead banners celebrating the franchise whose crest was the first he wore in the NHL.
“It’s always special coming back here,” he said, the second period now underway.
And then he broke into a broad grin.
“Even when you’re booed.”