On Tom Renney’s Exit Interview

Former Oilers coach Tom Renney’s last media availability was made today at Rexall Place.

I had the pleasure of listening via 630 CHED’s OilersNow program.

Here are a few quotes I picked up.

For what you had to work with, I think you did a pretty good job as well. Surely you can’t be seriously blaming Tom Renney for this team’s performance when you had half a defence (at best) out there on most nights? It got a little shady when the third line would get more ice than the first line, but overall I think you did better than adequate.

Patience? Patience is waiting for the ketchup to come out of the bottle. Patience is waiting for wallpaper to dry. I know you’ve only been here for 33% of the non playoff years, but we’re running out of patience. It’s not all your fault, as a matter of fact, much of it isn’t your fault. But it’s your last interview and you had to come up with something on the spot, and I understand that. We’ve been patient.  This kind of patience?  We’re past watching wallpaper dry, we’re ready to see it peel.

Here’s where you and I go off the rails a bit, big guy. Granted, Taylor Hall had a shoulder issue that would disqualify him from being playing those games, but you also had several months toward the end of the season where it became blindingly obvious that the Oilers weren’t going to make the playoffs.  Why wait until the exit interview before offering up this tidbit?  Then again, I do see that if you put Hall at centre, you would’ve had to scratch Belanger and play Omark. You didn’t want to put the Oilers in a compromising position by having to play a guy that their jury was already out on. I think I get it.

I believe that. While I question the thing about Hall playing centre, I don’t doubt that you’ll likely have work come October.

I don’t know either. Next.

I realize that it’s 2012 and the Oilers aren’t the ’86 Mets, but what’s a couple of Old Viennas on the jet going to do after you beat the Canucks? No beer plus bag skating the hell out of the crew would make me a crankypants as well.  You think a couple of coolers would’ve lightened the load a bit?  No?  Yeah, you’re probably right.

Approach this like you’re a fan of any other fan base.  We’ll say the…Avalanche.  No, wait, the Kansas City Royals.  What is your task as the head coach of this ball club?  Win?  That’s not a secret, right?  You want to win, yes?

If not, then what is the task?

In summary, I don’t think Renney did too bad a job here as coach.  I wish the guy well and I hope he’s employed within a few months.  I’m 99% sure that if he had his way, things might’ve been a little different as far as who got into the line every night, but I guess we’ll never know now.  There were some crazy moments where the third line was picking up more time than the first line, but Devan Dubnyk began to get more starts as the season progressed, and I wouldn’t have been shocked if Renney got another year to steer this ship.

Oh well.  Bring on the next

victim

qualified person to run this team.

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