'It Was a Circus': Sheldon Souray Reveals Rocky Road With the Oilers During His Stint With the Team
Sheldon Souray reveals details about his tenure with the Edmonton Oilers while being a guest on the UnHammered podcast.
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports - 'It Was a Circus': Sheldon Souray Reveals Rocky Road With the Oilers During His Stint With the TeamEDMONTON -- Sheldon Souray was a force of nature during his NHL career.
The 6-foot-4 231 lbs defenseman recorded 300 points, 456 hits and 1145 penalty minutes in a 758 game career. Souray was a recent guest on the UnHammered podcast. The podcast is hosted by Brantt Myhres, who is also a former hockey player.
The podcast "dives deep into the inspiring stories of those who have embraced a life of sobriety and are now thriving in ways they never imagined possible," according to its official description.
Souray spent three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers organization. Although his time with the team was limited, it wasn't a smooth road. Things came to a head during his third and final season with the team.
During a game against the Calgary Flames, he had a moment with coach Tom Renney that made his blood boil. "we're getting thumped four or five-to-one after the second period and I'm walking out to go play and Tom Renney gives my jersey a tug and says 'hey if you want to get someone back now is the time.' No one had ever done that in my career, I know what my job is."
"And that made me mad. At this time I was putting up points, someone telling me to fight didn't make sense to me."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQUY-yi9y84[/embed]
Souray then describes what was going on behind the scenes with the Oilers organization, "then I was pissed because I wanted to get out of Edmonton at that point. I had a couple years left on my deal and I wasn't seeing eye-to-eye with the management."
When Souray first joined the Oilers, Kevin Lowe was the General Manager. Steve Tambellini had taken over as GM during Souray's last season with the team.
The coaching situation was a strange one, with Souray saying, "we had co-coaches, we had Pat Quinn and Tom Renney. It was f***ed up. From the top to the bottom it was so dysfunctional."
"Pat Quinn would come in and he'd tell us something, then he'd leave and Tom Renney would go 'guys scratch that, we want you to do this.' It was a circus."
During that game against the Flames, Souray broke his hand in his fight against Jarome Iginla. He was living in Los Angeles at the time and told the team he wanted to have the surgery there, "it was a week before Olympic break, back then we are getting two weeks off for the Olympic break. I said I wanted to go to LA to get the surgery and they said 'no'."
They had told him they had a plan to trade him. The surgery Souray needed was a simple one, so they wanted him to stay in Edmonton to get the surgery.
Souray continues, "now I'd asked for a trade, now we aren't seeing eye-to-eye and they are thinking I'm this spoiled brat who wants to change the organization."
Souray details some suggestions he made after they asked him what they could do to make things better. He tells them, "let's get a wives lounge, so our kids and our wives' can go somewhere after a game and not get harassed by all the guys drinking beer telling us how bad we are."
Their response according to Souray was, "just play hockey, we brought you here to play hockey. It was good enough for Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXV8SxCg1HE[/embed]
The organization has come a long way from the time that Souray spent with the team. Both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have talked about the Oilers being a great organization.
Bookmark The Hockey News Edmonton Oilers team site to never miss news, interviews or any other updates on the Oilers.