The Dallas Stars finally bit the bullet on Friday and relieved Head Coach Pete DeBoer of his duties with the team. The news comes a week after the Stars were outmatched in the Western Conference Final by the Edmonton Oilers, with the series finale ending in disaster. DeBoer pulled starting goaltender Jake Oettinger in the first seven minutes after Oettinger gave up two goals on two shots. Edmonton would claim a 6-3 victory en route to another Stanley Cup Final appearances. 

DeBoer Out as Stars Coach After Conference Final Debacle 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 <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/dallas-stars">Dallas Stars</a> fired head coach Pete DeBoer.

The difficult thing about parting ways with a coach when things are not going your franchise's way is when to pick the right time to do so. General Manager Jim Nill decided to ponder for a week as to when he might be in the market for a new head coach. While one wouldn't want to a decision to be made with emotion and instead of logic, most fans can agree that the way the Dallas Stars's playoff run ended was deplorable. Most would expect a premature move such as the one made not even halfway through the first period of Game 5 to be made by a coach with much less experience. 

Now that the Head Coach position is empty in Dallas and the search begins, the argument could be made that the Stars waited a little longer than most teams would to make the change. Not only would time have passed in which some potential candidates sign with other teams, but also if a point were to be made for the following coach that failure is to not be tolerated by the Stanley Cup contenders.  The top potential candidate would be previous New York Ranger coach Peter Laviolette, who last won his sole Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. It would also not be out of the realm of possibly for the Stars to tap someone from their AHL pipeline, as the Texas Stars boasted one of the records during the previous AHL season. Whoever is tapped to stand behind the bench for the Dallas Stars will surely know that they will either have to bring back a Cup to Dallas or be shown the door. 

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