Pete DeBoer basically asks to get fired after Stars’ elimination
Brutal postgame press conference by the head coach after the Oilers’ win in Dallas. Watch below:
In the first period of Game 5 of the Western Conference Final, between the Edmonton Oilers and Stars, Dallas head coach Peter DeBoer stunned everyone when he pulled goalie Jake Oettinger just seven minutes into the contest.
While as DeBoer said ‘status quo had not been working’, the move created a lot of controversy and, in the end, the Stars were eliminated in five games by the Oilers, who for the second straight year are moving on to the Stanley Cup Final.
However it was DeBoer’s comments on Oettinger postgame that got the most heat and attention. With how he threw his netminder under the bus for his work in the series against Edmonton, DeBoer sounded like a guy basically asking to get fired.
“I didn’t take that lightly and 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, and partly knowing that (the) status quo had not been working. That’s a pretty big sample size.”
Oettinger was impressive in the first two rounds against the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets, recording a .919 save percentage and 2.47 goals against average, but things changed in the Western Conference Final against Edmonton. He posted an .853 save percentage and 3.93 GAA as Dallas only managed to win the first contest of the series.
Last spring, Oettinger recorded a .907 save percentage and 2.56 goals against average in six games against the Oilers, but went on to lose the last three games of that series with an .859 save percentage over that stretch. The goaltender will enter the first season of an eight-year extension with an $8.25-million cap hit. He signed the pact in October.
As for DeBoer, the head coach has now been defeated in the conference finals six times in the last seven years. He lost with the San Jose Sharks in 2019, the Vegas Golden Knights in 2020 and 2021, and the Stars in the last three seasons.
