The Rift In The Dressing Room

If you swallowed all that kool-aid about the incredible harmony that existed last season in the Edmonton Oilers dressing room, it’s time for you to scan the Carolina Hurricanes roster.
It’s worth remembering the recent fact that Erik Cole, Sergei Samsonov and Joni Pitkanen were at least a little unhappy as Oilers.
Now they’re happy in the Carolinas….
A warm and welcoming dressing room climate can overcome a host of problems. That comfort didn’t exist here — not for these guys, anyway — and the record shows that it was non-existent for others, as well.

There is chatter around the league that Edmonton’s tight-knit dressing room is changing and not for the better, that the obvious divide between the younger players and senior leadership cadre has not been bridged easily. Captain Ethan Moreau addressed that issue Friday, saying he didn’t think it was a problem.
“It’s still a really good room, just with different personalities and different demographics,” said Moreau, who did admit this year has been a challenge made more difficult by the mood their lousy record has created in the community.
“It’s got to change. It’s not healthy. There is way too much negativity. It seems nothing was positive all year. It’s tough to play that way. The product on the ice hasn’t been as good. We’ve got to find a way to get that positive environment back.”

On the ice, anyone outside of the team itself would have been hard-pressed to see any evidence of their differences, though there were times, especially when the two were duelling for the NHL scoring championship, when Orr confided to those closest to him that he thought the “Chicago guys” were quietly conspiring against him, whether they were feeding Espo an extra pass or denying Orr one, just to make sure their long-time buddy came out on top.

There’s a truth that applies to all teams in all professionl sports: harmony is way overrated. Many a championship has been won with players who didn’t socialize away from the park or the rink, who didn’t say a lot to each other in any circumstance, whose personalities naturally clashed, who came from backgrounds that were irreconcilable, who rubbed each other the wrong way, who hated each other’s guts. Talent goes a long way toward patching over those kinds of differences.

[A] team spiralling downward will invariably begin to pick at itself, to magnify its rifts and tensions and jealousies. There is a long, long list of jerks who won many a championship, and of nice guys who finished last.