The Dallas Stars suffered their third straight series defeat in the Western Conference Final, and second straight at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers. As the Oilers advance to the Stanley Cup Final, the Stars are left with more questions than answers.
One of those questions has to surround Stars head coach Peter DeBoer and his decision to pull star goalie Jake Oettinger in the first period of the deciding Game 5. Oettinger gave up two goals on the first two shots he faced, and his night was over after just seven minutes.
Even though Oettinger is one of the best goalies in the NHL, DeBoer decided he had seen enough, and went with backup Casey DeSmith for the remainder of the game.
“Any time you pull a goalie the reasoning is always to try and spark your group,” DeBoer said after the loss. “So that was the number one reason.”
DeBoer went on to say that Oettinger doesn’t have a proven history of success against the Oilers, almost completely throwing his goalie under the bus.
“I didn’t blame it all on Jake,” DeBoer said. “The reality is if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton. We gave up two shots, and two goals in an elimination game.”
Despite allowing those two goals on two shots, Oettinger was a crucial piece of the Stars lineup all season. In 58 games Oettinger picked up a 36-18-4 record with a .909 save percentage and 2.59 goals against average.
In 17 playoff games leading up to Game 5, Oettinger had nine wins and made a postseason-leading 455 saves.
The numbers didn’t matter to DeBoer, though, as he waved the white flag early in a season-ending contest.
"It was partly to spark our team and wake them up,” DeBoer said. “And partly knowing that status quo had not been working. That's a pretty big sample size."
DeBoer had a chance to put Oettinger back between the pipes after the first intermission, but decided it was DeSmith’s crease for the rest of the game.
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