First Shift 🏒

Jason Robertson knows a thing or two about goalies – he studies them quite a bit.

So when asked what is the key to Jake Oettinger’s recent success, the Stars’ top scorer for the past two seasons put it plainly: confidence.

“Confidence, confidence, confidence,” Robertson said. “When a hockey player is confident, it makes all the difference. I can only imagine how much it means to a goalie.”

For Oettinger right now, it means the Stars are winning. The 25-year-old netminder is 4-0-0 on the season with a 1.48 GAA and .953 save percentage. The 6-6 goalie said he is seeing the puck well, he is reading the game well, and he has confidence.

“I think I’m just more confident,” he said. “I think as a goalie, you want to be aggressive but, when you’re 6-6 you can be deeper and it helps you get to plays easier. If you’re six inches outside the crease, they’re going to make you look pretty silly, so just the confidence and the reads that I’ve worked on. I can make a lot of saves from the goal line, so if I can just be patient and stay back a little bit more, it kind of slows things down for me.”

Oettinger was able to work early in his career with 6-7 Ben Bishop, and the veteran gave the youngster a lot of tips about being in the right place at the right time and just letting the puck hit him. Now, almost 250 games (including playoffs) into his career, Oettinger said he has a lot of experience to lean on.

“I think five years of playing, great goalie coaches, learning from great goalies, that all helps,” Oettinger said. “Bish has harped on me since Day 1. He’s a different animal, so I can’t play exactly like him, but there are a lot of things I can take from him. Just using my size to my advantage, once you get confident you can do that and stop anyone in the world, the game slows down.”

Oettinger missed much of his summer two seasons ago as he rehabbed from surgery, so having a healthy summer to work seems to be making a difference now, coach Pete DeBoer said.

“He’s healthy,” DeBoer said. “He’s coming off a summer where he actually got to train, unlike last summer. When he’s dialed in, he combines that size with his hockey sense where he’s there before the puck is there.”

And that gives you a lot of confidence.