Following the controversial decision to replace Jake Oettinger early in Game 5, Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer offered a candid assessment of his starting goaltender after the team`s season-ending loss.
“I didn`t blame it all on Jake,” DeBoer stated post-game, “but the reality is, if you go back to last year`s playoffs, he`s lost six of seven games to Edmonton. And we gave up two goals on two shots in an elimination game.”
He elaborated on the rationale behind the change: “It was partly to spark our team and wake them up. And partly knowing that the status quo had not been working, and that`s a pretty big sample size.”
It was this critical assessment that prompted DeBoer`s decision to insert backup goaltender Casey DeSmith just over seven minutes into Thursday night`s decisive contest, after Oettinger allowed two goals on the first two shots he faced from the Edmonton Oilers.
Tristan Blackwood