In today’s Morning Skate, we linked to a story about Taylor Hall rather publicly questioning his coach’s decision to pull the goalie Saturday night with the Oilers down three goals to Calgary. If you missed it, the Flames scored to make it 6-2, capping off an embarrassing performance by the home team, after which Hall broke his stick and, well, you can watch it here.
Yesterday Hall said he regretted his actions.
“After that goal, I was just so frustrated at the whole sequence of events and I wasn’t singling out Tom [Renney] by any means,” Hall told reporters. “I respect everything that Tom does and it was kind of embarrassing on my part to say that. But we moved on, we talked about it and everything is fine.”
Renney accepted Hall’s apology, adding: “He’s got to be able to understand those types of circumstances and understand what we’re trying to do here and he does when he gives himself a second to think about that. But he’s so passionate and so driven. The kid’s a stud and not a dud and I know which I would rather have.”
We’ll just ignore the fact a grown man said “the kid’s a stud and not a dud” and move on to the question: Does Renney have any chance of being the coach next season?
Edmonton Sun columnist Terry Jones believes that “if the Oilers don’t climb up several spots from 29th where they’ve dropped since an 8-2-2 start to the season, the kids will likely get the second head coach of their NHL careers.”
The Oilers’ record since that 8-2-2 start is 9-24-2. And even with all the injuries they’ve had to deal with, that’s just awful.