The Revenge

I've already tried comparing the Souray situation to early 19th century Canadian history, but lately the whole thing has been reminding me more of George Costanza in the episode "The Revenge," from Seinfeld's second season. Okay, Sheldon didn't march into Tambellini's office for his dramatic exit, but he might as well have. "You are a laughing-stock. You are a joke! These people are laughing at you. You're nothing. You have no brains, no ability, nothing!" I think Spector cleaned things up a bit in the final draft of his article last spring, but the gist was basically the same.

And then today Souray decided to take another page from George's playbook by showing up for work and acting like nothing ever happened. With George, things didn't exactly work out as planned.

George: "What, that? Are you kidding? I didn't quit. You took that seriously?"

Sheldon: "Things that I said, that's five months ago. We are in a completely different spot now and there is a lot of optimism."

(As an aside, I like to imagine that the conversations in the dressing room today between Souray and his teammates went similar to George's banter with his coworkers in that second clip. "Awe, she's going to be a fine sailor.")

Then this evening, keeping in step with the Seinfeld episode, Steve Tambellini decided to clear up any remaining confusion about the situation, saying that the Oilers informed Souray last week that he would not be welcome at training camp. The comparison to "The Revenge" falls apart a bit when you remember the part about George's boss saying that he's a winner and will always be a winner, but only if you don't think that Oilers management believe that about themselves.

So, from this point on, the next steps for all involved seem clear: Sheldon Souray is going to have to find some way to slip Steve Tambellini a mickey.