Players Tribune - Sheldon Souray

[killer_carlson]

with how the ladies reacted to pictures of Souray, i agree he will be in media as soon as he wants it.

He may not want it though.

[browna]

As much as there is some spin from the Kool Aid gang up there, the general tone of the article speaks for itself.

This coming from the same group that let/forced Smid to play with neck issues, and only after he could barely move months later, did they bother with an MRI, and he was out for months...and the issues he has now are based on that from back when.

http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Hockey/NH...58031-qmi.html

He wanted out the moment things started going south for the Oilers and when his first trade request (when he made the noble offer to waive his no-movement clause in mid-season to further the organization’s rebuilding efforts) yielded no results, he turned up the heat, making it impossible for this team to allow him one more shift in Oilers colours.

Mission accomplished.

“It’s not a players thing, it’s not a fans thing or a city thing,” the disgruntled defenceman told SportsNet in upping the trade request to a full-fledged demand. “It’s a management thing. They’ve given up on me, and it’s a two-way street.”

Souray says he was forced by management to play with an injured shoulder when he got here three seasons ago, and didn’t even get a phone call from GM Steve Tambellini in the four months since his season-ending hand injury and subsequent infection.

“I got challenged by management on the very first day of my first training camp. The very first day. I wasn’t even ready to play when I came here, but it was like, ‘We signed you, you go out and play.’

“I go out, play six games, and I get hurt.”

“I’ve had the experience of playing in great organizations (in New Jersey and Montreal), and experienced a vastly different approach to things like that. I never had my character questioned there. I feel that’s all I’ve had since I’ve been here.

“You talk about Prongs (Chris Pronger) and guys like that, and it should raise an eyebrow when players who leave town are skipping out with a smile on their face.”

That’s not burning a bridge, that’s blowing it up, while the GM is still standing on it. And what does it accomplish? The Oilers will get nothing but low ball offers now that there is a gun being held to management’s head and Edmonton, on the heels of Pronger, Dany Heatley, Marian Hossa and Michael Nylander, takes another public relations pounding.

At least Pronger was diplomatic. He gave it the old, ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ Nobody believed him, but at least he was civil and gracious in leaving.

This is something else. Something calculated, self-serving and unprofessional. In a lot of ways it sounds like a desperate rat trying to guarantee his escape from a sinking ship.

But it doesn’t mean he’s lying.

...
And the club’s record of recurring injuries speaks for itself.

Those issues will have to be addressed moving forward because Edmonton is gaining a reputation as an unhealthy environment, figuratively and literally.