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Lowe: It took a month to let Renney go because Renney made it such a tough decision

Minnesota Wild v Edmonton Oilers

EDMONTON, CANADA - NOVEMBER 30: Edmonton coach Tom Renney voices his displeasure after Dany Heatley #15 of the Minnesota Wild ran into Nikolai Khabibulin #35 during the shootout at Rexall Place on November 30, 2011 in Edmonton, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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Edmonton Oilers president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe attempted some damage control today in the wake of the organization’s decision to part ways with head coach Tom Renney more than a month after the end of the regular season.

“There’s been some criticism at the timing of us making the decision and releasing Tom. If anything, it emphasized the fact that we were uncertain,” said Lowe, as per TSN.ca. “And that’s more a case in point of Tom’s ability and our genuineness about potentially having him back. But at the end of the day we made a decision to move on.

“From Tom’s perspective, there’s still lots of time if he wants to pursue coaching again this season. In the event that there are openings this season, he’ll have plenty of time.”

Even so, a month is a long time to leave a guy with no contract twisting in the wind. In contrast, it only took the Calgary Flames and Brent Sutter a few days to officially break up once the season had concluded.