It’s apology time, Nation

Sheldon Souray haters, it’s time for you to make amends for your crimes. You remember Sheldon Souray, right? The local boy from Elk Point, Alberta who said it was an honour to be able to sign with his hometown Oilers in the summer of 2007? You also remember 2007, right? The era where the Oilers couldn’t get a hot dog vendor to agree to work at RX1 much less sign a player of any note.

Yeah, that’s right. Souray signed a rich deal in the summer of 2007 and promptly got injured — limiting his first season in copper and blue to only 26 games. The Mighty Oil missed the playoffs and Souray was blamed for virtually everything:

“Sheldon Souray is a bum.”

“Sheldon Souray is overpaid.”

“Sheldon Souray once borrowed $5 from my cousin Gary and still hasn’t paid him back.”

Yep, it was a consensus in the Nation that Kevin Lowe had rocks in his skull and basically set the Oil back 100 years by signing Souray to his overpriced contract. Oh, and that year he got 26 goals for the Canadiens? No one would even dare suggest that it was anything more than a fluke. It only happened because (insert stupid reasoning here) and you have to remember that (insert more Souray hating here).

This continued all of last season and into the summer until finally someone snapped and stood up for the guy waaaaaaay back on Sept 3.

Well, well, well.

Look who’s an overpriced bum now, Souray Haters. Look who probably owes his own cousin Gary $20 now but now ignores his calls. We’ll give you a hint. It’s all of you haters — but specifically you those of you who picked him as your goat in the star/goat draft of 2008.

JB September 2 2008, 7:40 pm.
Goat — Sheldon Souray. $5.4 million. Ugh. Desperation signings always hurt the most.

jayoilfan September 3 2008, 8:42 am.
Not so star — Sheldon Souray, way too overpaid and a total bandage case for what he brings. Lucky if he hits 40 games.

Matt September 3 2008, 9:36 pm.
Goat goes to Souray, even though I really like the guy.

Gord September 2 2008, 11:03 am.
(I’ll pick) my goat last year as well — Sheldon Souray. It’s easy to see how many mistakes this overpaid clown makes when you are looking closely for them. You can almost always put the blame squarely on him for the goal that just went in against the Mighty Oil.

My my, Souray Haters. How very stupid of all of you. Blame paste needs to be smeared on the faces of everyone who got involved — including our very own Professor Willis who got in on the action:

Well, seeing how much you all love “numbers” and “reading” let’s all have a look at Souray’s stats for the year to date — and prorated for the season:

2008–09: 25 GP, 8 G, 13 A, 21 PTS
Prorated 08–09: 81 GP, 26 G, 42 A, 68 PTS

Oh and you can compare it to the one-in-an-overpaid-lifetime season that he had in Montreal if you like:

Career Season
2006–07: 81 GP, 26 G, 38 A, 64 PTS

What’s that noise? Is it thousands of Souray haters shutting their mouths in unison? It must be.

Here we are, three months and six days after defending Souray, saying that not only is Souray bringing the heat, but he also deserves to be in the All-Star Game. Ordinarily we don’t vote — for the All Star Game, for American Idol, for Canadian Idol or in any political elections. But we are going to vote for this — and so should all of us.

Here is how he stands now. 6th place in voting. Ahead of CFP – believe that – but trailing the likes of Campbell and Rafalski. Does that seem right to you? There is only one thing we can do to make up for our early shabby treatment of Big Sexy.

Go vote. Often. Here. We voted four times this morning just to kick things off.