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Sheldon Souray has changed his “not talking to Edmonton media” stance

Sheldon Souray

Mild kerfuffle (good word) out of Edmonton this morning prior to tonight’s Stars-Oilers game at American Airlines Center. Former Oilers defenseman Sheldon Souray, currently in the midst of a bounce-back season with the Stars, told the Dallas PR staff he wouldn’t speak to any media in advance of the game. He’d also refused all interview requests leading up to tonight’s affair.

As you can imagine, the media was extremely understanding:

Staples Tweet
Matty Tweet
Souray tweet

But after receiving said heat from the media and speaking with the Stars organization, Souray had a change of heart:

spec tweet

Souray had plenty of reasons for not wanting to talk with reporters. He left Edmonton acrimoniously (he and his $5.4 annual cap hit stashed away in the AHL) and became increasingly frustrated with how the organization handled the situation. In a September interview with the Montreal Gazette, Souray recalled his time in Edmonton with a distinct lack of fondness:

“What a debacle,” Souray said. “Was it a nightmare with Edmonton? Yeah.

“I felt (a move) would happen when it happened. I started losing faith in the process. Things (the Oilers) were doing didn’t make sense. I resigned myself to being just a prisoner at that point, for lack of a better word.

“I had played in two organizations before Edmonton that were top shelf. First New Jersey, then Montreal. They were kind of the standard. Then you go somewhere that’s less than that and it’s: ‘Wow, this is interesting.’”

My guess is that, having already addressed his time in Edmonton, Souray probably wanted to avoid ripping open old wounds and focus on tonight’s game. But that’s kind of a pipe dream considering 1) Edmonton reporters were waiting for today given he’d balked on previous interview requests and 2) His story is pretty compelling. No way reporters were going to just ignore it.

UPDATE: Here’s Souray speaking with the media.