Me to Stars - it's a huge mistake to fire Pete DeBoer now.

I've seen players run the asylum before, and it's never good, and this feels a lot like we could be headed there again.

Lemme start here - I don’t know Pete very well. We’ve met a few times over the years - I’ve talked to him when he coached elsewhere and we’ve bumped into each other once or twice since he’s been with the Stars. I don’t really know what kind of a guy he is. I don’t care. He’s a really good coach. None of them are perfect. More than one player who played for the great Scotty Bowman said, in one way or another - 364 days a year I hated his guts - and then I’d go pickup my ring,

Pete doesn’t have the ring yet - but he’s around it a lot and everywhere he goes. That’s not nothing. Marv Levy and Bud Grant went 0-4 in Super Bowls - are they bad coaches? Paul Maurice won his first last spring after over 1700 NHL games behind the bench. Lindy Ruff has been to three Stanley Cup Finals and hasn’t won. They’re both top 5 on the NHL’s all-time wins list.

But word on the street is - Pete might be on the way out. I wanted to take a shot here. Weigh in. I think he needs an ally or two.

I don’t know what’s been going on behind closed doors over the years and what Jim Nill is thinking. Pete’s got a year left and if he gets gassed, the NHL being what it is, he’d get snatched up in a minute. If he left, the Stars would likely find a different version of the same thing, that may or may not help guide them to their fourth straight Conference Final next spring.

So why let him go? To appease the goalie? The media? The fanbase? The players? To punish Pete for getting so torqued at his starter that he hooked him? Or - to punish him because he had the audacity to call out a stat line and say he was frustrated by the play of his 66 Million dollar goalie?

Word on the socials today - is there is much dissension in the room among the players who don’t like how the coach handled the Conference Final, especially, according to some reports, how he handled his starting goalie.

Oh dear… I hope the players aren’t too mad - or their feelings got hurt…

This would be the absolute worst reason possible to part with Pete. There may be other reasons for considering parting ways - and in fact - I share some of those reasons - but right now - he’s given Stars management and himself a hammer to deal with his team and his goaltender - don’t take it out of his hand.

Pete DeBoer, for the very first time in his time in Dallas, has the Coach/Goalie dynamic where he needs it. How it got there was bumpy - how it got there was painful - but it had to get there. This is significant. Because as Head Coach, Pete decides who starts, and who finishes. End of discussion.

If Jim Nill and management come out and back Pete with full force - it’s Pete’s team, not Jake’s, and not anyone else’s. It can’t be the players making these decisions. I’m personally aware of more than one players coup that resulted in the firing of hockey executives and/or coaches, and front office people. It’s not good for anyone, and it’s disastrous for the organization.

The media - too many here are falling all over themselves to be the most articulate, the most compassionate, and the most ardent of supporters of their mistreated goaltender. I know what happens, Jake’s a good guy, easy to talk to, and you like him. But - again - so what?

This is the fucking National Hockey League, and these are the Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn’t a game for the weak minded, or brittle.

Personally, I don’t believe Jake has the head for this, for the long haul in a Stanley Cup playoff run. The Stars were, as my Dad used to say “good stuck” - they had to sign him - I get it - but I wonder if they’re like me - “hoping” Jake can get it done - and not at all certain that he will. That’s a really tough place to be. But now, they have a card or two to play if they keep Pete.

If the Stars fire Pete DeBoer now, they lose all of it, all of the leverage DeBoer currently has with his goalie - and the players win. And if the players win and management capitulates, Jake Oettinger is bulletproof from now until the end of his days with the Stars.

Would that be in the best interest of the franchise? I don’t think so. Do you?