Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
There’s plenty of blame to go around in Dallas after the Stars fell to the Oilers in the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year. Jake Oettinger’s play in net left a bit to be desired in both of those series, and his coach wasn’t shy about calling attention to those shortcomings after the team was eliminated.
You’re doing something right as an NHL team if you managed to punch your ticket to the conference finals three years in a row. With that said, you’re going to be forced to do some soul-searching if you end up losing every single time you end up on the cusp of earning the right to play for the Stanley Cup.
That’s the position the Stars are now facing in the wake of their 6-3 loss to the Oilers on Thursday night, as a Dallas team that lost to the Golden Knights in the second-to-last round in 2023 has now met that fate at the hands of Edmonton on back-to-back occasions.
Peter DeBoer has been the head coach of the Stars for all three of those playoff runs, and Jake Oettinger has started every single game in the postseason since the skipper arrived in Dallas while posting a 32-30 record and a 2.56 goals against average.
However, the netminder was pulled less than eight minutes into the first period of Game 5 on Thursday night when the Stars fell into a 2-0 hole after he failed to save the first two shots fired his way. Casey DeSmith ultimately stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced, but the Oilers earned a Stanley Cup Final rematch with the Panthers with the 6-3 victory.
After the game, DeBoer got the chance to explain the decision to yank Oettinger as early as he did, and he didn’t exactly take the most diplomatic approach while outlining his thought process.
Stars HC Pete DeBoer talks about his decision to pull Jake Oettinger and what he said after the timeout in the 1st period. #TexasHockey @CBSSportsTexas pic.twitter.com/cRqNjwcZVC
— Johnny Resendiz (@Johnnyresendizz) May 30, 2025
Here’s what he had to say:
“I didn’t blame it all on Jake, but the reality is if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton. And we give up two goals on two shots in an elimination game.
It was partly to spark our team and wake them up. It was partly knowing the status quo had not been working. That’s a pretty big sample size.”
That’s the kind of criticism that might lead you to believe DeBoer thinks the team needs to go in a different direction at that position, but that’s much easier said than done when you consider Oettinger signed an eight-year, $66 million contract extension prior to the start of the season.
It’s also a bit hard to believe the Stars are in a rush to part ways with the guy who’s led them to the conference finals three years in a row, but it does seem like we’ve got a little bit of drama brewing in Dallas.