It is hard to believe that a coach who has taken his team to three straight Conference Finals could be fired, but that is what happened Friday as the Dallas Stars fired head coach Pete DeBoer.

To an outsider, DeBoer's regular season record and success in the playoffs would cement him in as one of the best coaches in the NHL right now, but after the Western Conference Final loss to Edmonton, the record does not tell the whole story.

DeBoer pulled his franchise goaltender Jake Oettinger only seven minutes - and two shots against - into an elimination game. It was, in the most literal sense, a live or die decision.

Now, DeBoer's tenure with Dallas is dead.

The coach's postgame comments did nothing to help his cause, seemingly throwing Oettinger even further 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 said. “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. 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.”

General Manager Jim Nill addressed the media Friday after the coaching change was announced. Nill touched on the goaltender pull, as well as DeBoer's comments afterward.

Nill said that he was okay with the goaltender pull given the spark needed to fire up the team. He then went on to say that no one was quite happy with the postgame comments, even DeBoer himself. But Nill did not say that the Oettinger benching was the cause of the firing.

He also addressed the slashing of Roope Hintz by Darnell Nurse and the response - or lack thereof - by saying quite politically that the team did not want to self-inflict any damage by retaliating and ruining a chance to win a game.  

Nill might have said these things, but the writing is already on the wall. DeBoer would not have been fired if it had not been for things that happened in the Edmonton series.

Now, the Stars are in a very unique position. Anything short of another Conference Final appearance will be seen as a major step back for a team that sure feels like it is on the precipice of something special. Whoever gets the job has to propel this team one last step forward, or their job will immediately be at risk.

It is not a spot Dallas, or DeBoer for that matter, ever wanted to be in, but one decision could have ultimately cost the Stars far more than just a series loss. Only time will tell whether or not the new head coach can continue the postseason success and eventually push the Stars over the edge to becoming a Stanley Cup champion.

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