FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger looks forward to one day being able to laugh about how last season ended, when he was quickly pulled after allowing two goals on the only shots he faced in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
“In the long run, I feel like I’m gonna look back on it as something that helped me,” Oettinger said Thursday as training camp opened. “And when we do win it all, it’s going to be, you know, look back and laugh and feel like that was something I had to go through in order to get to that.”
The Stars have been to the playoffs four consecutive seasons with Oettinger in net. They lost in the conference final the past three seasons, with Edmonton knocking them out the last two.
Oettinger was pulled only 7:09 into last May’s 6-3 loss, in what was a curious and much-discussed decision by now-former Stars coach Pete DeBoer. After the game, DeBoer pointed out that Oettinger had lost six of his previous seven playoff games against the Oilers and he was hoping that a goalie switch would spark the team in an elimination game.
Edmonton’s first two shots on Jake Oettinger resulted in goals — including this one by Mattias Janmark — leading to a quick hook for the Dallas goalie. Sam Hodde/Getty Images
That didn’t happen, and it instead prompted questions about the relationship between the coach and the 26-year-old goalie, who signed an eight-year, $66 million contract extension last October that kicks in this season.
The two didn’t immediately talk in the aftermath of the decision.
“A little more blown out of proportion than it actually was,” Oettinger said. “I think stuff happens, emotions run high and people say and do things on a whim that maybe they look back and regret. I mean, I’ve done that in my life. I’m sure everyone here has done that. … You just learn from it, and that’s what I did.”
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Eight days after the loss, the Stars fired DeBoer. General manager Jim Nill said then that input from players and fallout from the Oettinger move were not the only factors in the decision to move on from the coach who had a 149-68-29 record in regular-season games and 29-27 in the playoffs over three seasons in Dallas.
DeBoer told NHL.com in a story posted this week that he still had no reservations about pulling Oettinger, but he did regret how he handled the postgame narrative.
“Listen, we were all to blame for coming up short again, and it starts with me,” DeBoer said. “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.”
As for his reference to Oettinger losing six of the previous seven playoffs games to Edmonton over two years when responding to a postgame question about the switch, DeBoer said he should have made it clear that those losses were on everyone.
“It wasn’t just him. It was all of us,” DeBoer told NHL.com. “It was all of us.”
Asked Thursday about DeBoer’s comments, Oettinger said, “I think he hit the nail on the head with what he said, so let’s leave it at that.”
In 251 regular-season games (242 starts) over five NHL seasons, Oettinger has a 149-66-27 record, .912 save percentage and 2.52 goals against average. He is 32-30 with a .912 save percentage and 2.56 GAA in 65 playoff games.
“He’s, I think, a top-3 goalie in the league for sure,” teammate Mikko Rantanen said. “That’s a big advantage to have a goalie who you can trust. And he works hard off the ice. You know he wants to get better, which is really good also.”
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