Now that he&#8217;s had time to reflect, former Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer isn&#8217;t happy with how he handled his team&#8217;s <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/dallas-stars-werent-prepared-for-improved-edmonton-oilers">loss to the Edmonton Oilers in last season&#8217;s Western Conference Final</a>.

The Stars opened the series with a 6-3 victory, then the Oilers completed a gentleman&#8217;s sweep. Edmonton outscored Dallas 19-5 over four consecutive wins, booking a second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
In Game 5, DeBoer pulled starting goalie Jake Oettinger after allowing two goals on two shots in the first period. Backup Casey DeSmith allowed three more goals in relief, and the Oilers ended the series with a 6-3 victory.
When asked about the decision to pull Oettinger after the game, DeBoer said it was partially to spark the team, but also because the young goalie hasn&#8217;t been able to get the job done against Edmonton.
<blockquote>&#8220;Any time you pull a goalie, the reasoning&#8217;s always to try and spark your group,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/Sportsnet/status/1928293376262017499">DeBoer said after the Game 5 loss to the Oilers</a>. &#8220;So that was the number-one reason. We had talked endlessly in this series about trying to play with the lead. Obviously we&#8217;re in a 2-0 hole right away.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t take that lightly and I didn&#8217;t blame it all on Jake, but the reality is, if you go back to last year&#8217;s playoffs, he&#8217;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&#8217;s a pretty big sample size.&#8221;</blockquote>
Oettinger allowed 16 goals on 109 shots over five games in this year&#8217;s loss to the Oilers for an .853 save percentage. That was a step back from the .901 save percentage he had in the Stars&#8217; six-game loss to Edmonton in the 2023-24 Western Conference Final.
While those are certainly unremarkable numbers from a goaltender with a $64 million contract, there are other reasons why Dallas lost to the Oilers. The Stars scored 11 goals over five games, and only six of those goals came at even strength. Jason Robertson and Tyler Seguin contributed six goals, while the likes of Mikko Rantanen, Wyatt Johnston, Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, Matt Duchene, and Jamie Benn combined for three. The other two goals came from the blueline. That&#8217;s not much depth scoring for a team with a supposedly elite offence.
Unsurprisingly, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/dallas-stars-fire-pete-deboer-after-loss-edmonton-oilers">DeBoer was let go a few days later</a>. General manager Jim Nill said in a statement, “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.”
Since debuting as an NHL head coach with the Florida Panthers in 2008-09, DeBoer has put together a 662-447-152 regular-season record along with two trips to the Stanley Cup Final. After coaching 17 consecutive seasons between Florida, New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas, the 2025-26 season will begin without DeBoer behind an NHL bench.
The veteran coach was interviewed by Mike Zeisberger last week. Speaking publicly for the first time since being fired by the Stars, DeBoer said he regretted how he handled the question about pulling Oettinger in Game 5 against the Oilers.
<blockquote>“Listen, we were all to blame for coming up short again, and it starts with me,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/coach-pete-deboer-talks-olympics-and-time-with-dallas-stars">DeBoer said in an exclusive sitdown with NHL.com</a>. “It was on me, it was on all the coaches, it was on all the players, it was on the organization as a whole. We all created the disappointment. We were all to blame, not just one guy.
“When all the questions at the postgame press conference were about Jake, I should have redirected the topic to reflect that this wasn’t just about him, this was about all of us. We &#8212; and I stress the word &#8216;we&#8217; &#8212; did not get the job done. We were on a run in which we’d lost six of our past seven games against Edmonton in the third round dating back to 2024. In one of my answers, I said he’d lost six of seven to them. But it wasn’t just him. It was all of us. That’s not on just one guy. I should have made that more clear.”</blockquote>
<h2>More News and Notes from Around the NHL</h2>
<ul>
<li>Former Oiler <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/los-angeles-kings-corey-perry-injury-wheelchair-help-off-ice">Corey Perry</a> is going to miss the beginning of his new team&#8217;s season. The veteran winger was taken off the ice during a pre-training camp skate in Los Angeles and is set to miss six to eight weeks following knee surgery. Perry inked a <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/corey-perry-talks-leaving-edmonton-oilers-joining-la-kings">one-year deal with the Kings</a> on July 1 with a base salary of $2 million and $2 million more in potential performance bonuses. The 40-year-old scored 19 goals and 30 points over 82 regular-season games for the Oilers in 2024-25 and added 10 goals and 14 points in 22 playoff games.</li>
<li>The Buffalo Sabres inked <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/three-goalies-edmonton-oilers-training-camp-pto">goaltender Alexandar Georgiev</a> to a one-year, $825 contract last week. That&#8217;s a considerable pay cut for the native of Ruse, Bulgaria, who&#8217;s coming off a three-year, $10.2 million deal with the Colorado Avalanche. The 29-year-old posted a 15-26-4 record along with a .875 save percentage over 49 games between the Avs and Sharks in 2024-25.</li>
</ul>

Now that he's had time to reflect, former Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer isn't happy with how he handled his team's <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/dallas-stars-werent-prepared-for-improved-edmonton-oilers">loss to the Edmonton Oilers in last season's Western Conference Final</a>.



The Stars opened the series with a 6-3 victory, then the Oilers completed a gentleman's sweep. Edmonton outscored Dallas 19-5 over four consecutive wins, booking a second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

In Game 5, DeBoer pulled starting goalie Jake Oettinger after allowing two goals on two shots in the first period. Backup Casey DeSmith allowed three more goals in relief, and the Oilers ended the series with a 6-3 victory.

When asked about the decision to pull Oettinger after the game, DeBoer said it was partially to spark the team, but also because the young goalie hasn't been able to get the job done against Edmonton.
<blockquote>"Any time you pull a goalie, the reasoning's always to try and spark your group," <a href="https://x.com/Sportsnet/status/1928293376262017499">DeBoer said after the Game 5 loss to the Oilers</a>. "So that was the number-one reason. We had talked endlessly in this series about trying to play with the lead. Obviously we're in a 2-0 hole right away.

"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."</blockquote>
Oettinger allowed 16 goals on 109 shots over five games in this year's loss to the Oilers for an .853 save percentage. That was a step back from the .901 save percentage he had in the Stars' six-game loss to Edmonton in the 2023-24 Western Conference Final.

While those are certainly unremarkable numbers from a goaltender with a $64 million contract, there are other reasons why Dallas lost to the Oilers. The Stars scored 11 goals over five games, and only six of those goals came at even strength. Jason Robertson and Tyler Seguin contributed six goals, while the likes of Mikko Rantanen, Wyatt Johnston, Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, Matt Duchene, and Jamie Benn combined for three. The other two goals came from the blueline. That's not much depth scoring for a team with a supposedly elite offence.

Unsurprisingly, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/dallas-stars-fire-pete-deboer-after-loss-edmonton-oilers">DeBoer was let go a few days later</a>. General manager Jim Nill said in a statement, “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.”

Since debuting as an NHL head coach with the Florida Panthers in 2008-09, DeBoer has put together a 662-447-152 regular-season record along with two trips to the Stanley Cup Final. After coaching 17 consecutive seasons between Florida, New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas, the 2025-26 season will begin without DeBoer behind an NHL bench.

The veteran coach was interviewed by Mike Zeisberger last week. Speaking publicly for the first time since being fired by the Stars, DeBoer said he regretted how he handled the question about pulling Oettinger in Game 5 against the Oilers.
<blockquote>“Listen, we were all to blame for coming up short again, and it starts with me,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/coach-pete-deboer-talks-olympics-and-time-with-dallas-stars">DeBoer said in an exclusive sitdown with NHL.com</a>. “It was on me, it was on all the coaches, it was on all the players, it was on the organization as a whole. We all created the disappointment. We were all to blame, not just one guy.

“When all the questions at the postgame press conference were about Jake, I should have redirected the topic to reflect that this wasn’t just about him, this was about all of us. We -- and I stress the word 'we' -- did not get the job done. We were on a run in which we’d lost six of our past seven games against Edmonton in the third round dating back to 2024. In one of my answers, I said he’d lost six of seven to them. But it wasn’t just him. It was all of us. That’s not on just one guy. I should have made that more clear.”</blockquote>
<h2>More News and Notes from Around the NHL</h2>
<ul>
 	<li>Former Oiler <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/los-angeles-kings-corey-perry-injury-wheelchair-help-off-ice">Corey Perry</a> is going to miss the beginning of his new team's season. The veteran winger was taken off the ice during a pre-training camp skate in Los Angeles and is set to miss six to eight weeks following knee surgery. Perry inked a <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/corey-perry-talks-leaving-edmonton-oilers-joining-la-kings">one-year deal with the Kings</a> on July 1 with a base salary of $2 million and $2 million more in potential performance bonuses. The 40-year-old scored 19 goals and 30 points over 82 regular-season games for the Oilers in 2024-25 and added 10 goals and 14 points in 22 playoff games.</li>
 	<li>The Buffalo Sabres inked <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/three-goalies-edmonton-oilers-training-camp-pto">goaltender Alexandar Georgiev</a> to a one-year, $825 contract last week. That's a considerable pay cut for the native of Ruse, Bulgaria, who's coming off a three-year, $10.2 million deal with the Colorado Avalanche. The 29-year-old posted a 15-26-4 record along with a .875 save percentage over 49 games between the Avs and Sharks in 2024-25.</li>
</ul>

NHL Notebook: Former Stars coach regrets pinning Western Conference Final loss to Oilers on goaltender

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