Pete DeBoer back in Dallas with Islanders for first time since shock Stars ouster

DALLAS — The day before a game in which he’s set to be the main character, Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer was typically understated regarding his own return here. “I’ve done this a few times [in] a few different spots,” DeBoer said after the Islanders practiced Saturday.“Your first game back’s always a little special.

Just because a lot of people you spend time with and work with and players.So it was a great chapter in my coaching career.

I’m now coaching the Islanders and focused on that.” Some exits are smoother than others, though, even in a profession where you are hired to be fired. DeBoer’s exit from Texas might be described as memorable for the wrong reasons. After coaching the Stars to the Western Conference Final for the third time in as many seasons, DeBoer’s club fell behind 3-1 in the series and 2-0 on the Oilers’ first two shots of Game 5, prompting him to shockingly pull star goaltender Jake Oettinger for Casey DeSmith. The Stars lost anyway.In the game’s immediate aftermath, DeBoer, in essence, tossed Oettinger under the bus. “We had talked endlessly in this series about trying to play with a lead, and obviously, we were in a 2-0 hole right away,” DeBoer told reporters.

“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 gave up two goals on two shots in an elimination game.

So it was partly to spark our team and wake them up.And partly knowing that status quo had not been working and that’s a pretty big sample size.” Less than a week later, the Stars let go of DeBoer. Having already stated regret about those comments in a September 2025 interview with the NHL’s website, saying he “should have redirected the topic to reflect that this wasn’t about [Oettinger], this was about all of us,” when questions about the goaltender came up, it’s not altogether shocking that ...