Ex-Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer regrets the way he handled postgame questions about goaltender Jake Oettinger after his former team was eliminated in Game 5 versus the Edmonton Oilers.
"Listen, we were all to blame for coming up short again, and it starts with me," DeBoer told NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger. "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 clearer."
DeBoer pulled Oettinger after the Oilers scored two goals on their first two shots in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. The veteran bench boss pointed to Oettinger's shaky results against Edmonton after the game.
"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," DeBoer said. "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."
DeBoer was fired days after the Stars' third straight exit in the conference final. General manager Jim Nill called DeBoer's postgame comments about Oettinger a "component" of his firing.
Oettinger was happy to hear about DeBoer's recent comments.
"I mean, I think I feel like he hit the nail on the head," Oettinger told Zeisberger. "I agree with what his reflection was. I'm glad he said what he said."
DeBoer has reached the conference final in six of the past seven seasons across stints with the San Jose Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights, and Stars. He remains without a team, though he will be behind the bench with Canada's men's team at the Olympics in February as an assistant coach.
