The Dallas Stars need a goalie to step up down the stretch

If I mention the names Manny Fernandez, Curtis McElhinney, Scott Darling, or David Aebischer most of you would have no clue who I’m talking about. However, Dallas Stars fans, if I said the names Ed Belfour, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Corey Crawford or Patrick Roy you would probably know EXACTLY who I’m talking about.

The second list of names were all starting goalies for teams that won the Stanley Cup. Belfour in 99 with the Dallas Stars. Vasilevskiy the last two years with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Crawford with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015 and Roy with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001.

The first group of names mentioned? Those were the backup goalies those same years. I’ve been following the Dallas Stars closely since they moved to Texas and even I couldn’t tell you Manny Fernandez was the backup goalie on that squad.

Who will step up for the Dallas Stars?

Why do I bring this up? Glad you asked. The Dallas Stars find themselves in a precarious situation. The Stars have played 47 games so far this season and three goalies have seen ice time. Anton Khudobin has only played nine games so we won’t talk about him for this argument.

The other two goalies, Jake Oettinger and Braden Holtby, have nearly split the playing time. Oettinger has started 19 games for the Dallas Stars while Holtby has started 21. The numbers for both goalies are very close. Oettinger has a save percentage of .916 while Holtby is at .912. Goals against is 2.49 for Oettinger and 2.78 for Holtby. The difference comes in their overall record. Oettinger is 14-5 while Holtby is 9-10-1.

There’s other obvious differences between these two netminders. Mainly the age. Oettinger is nine years younger than Holtby. But, there again, let’s take that out of this discussion because this isn’t a post about the future of the Dallas Stars. This is about the here and now. Dallas is currently sitting in fifth place in the division. They’re also sitting on the outside of the Wild Card race; albeit only by one point.

It was mentioned on a broadcast several games ago and it’s worth mentioning again: Someone needs to step up.

Very seldom, if ever, will you see a deep playoff run by a team that alternates between goalies on a regular basis. The Stars are waiting for one of these two goalies to step up and take the reigns. One of them needs to be the number one goalie. They’ve both shown signs of it this season and they’ve both fallen flat in the process as well.

If the Dallas Stars hope to make it to the post season and make a deep push in the post season, they need to have someone step up as the number one goalie. Will it be Holtby? Will it be Oettinger? We have about 30 games to find out which one it will be.

Personally, I’m hoping it only takes about 15 for one of them to assert themselves. If not, we may be in for a long offseason once again.

• Published on 02/17/2022 at 12:50 PM
• Last updated at 02/17/2022 at 12:50 PM