Pete DeBoer fired by the Stars who provide the main reason why he’s out

The Dallas Stars have announced that they have relieved head coach Peter DeBoer on Friday morning.

In a statement, team general manager Jim Nill explained the decision, saying:

“After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” Nill said. “We’d like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”

The end all started for DeBoer in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against the Edmonton Oilers when he 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.”

Not long after his controversial comments, reports emerged that players in the Dallas dressing room were unhappy with DeBoer and his comments towards Oettinger. It felt like the end was near for his career with the Stars.

While the team explains that the main reason for the coaching change is the need for a new voice, it certainly feels like it was what DoBoer said that got him into this position, or better yet, out of his position as head coach of the Stars.

DeBoer earned a 149-68-29 record in 246 regular-season games over three seasons with the Stars, leading the club to three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances. He posted a 29-27 record in 56 Stanley Cup Playoff games.