Oettinger debut makes history; update on upcoming season due Thursday

Monday night Jake Oettinger made his NHL debut, a third-period relief stint in the Stars’ 3-0 loss to Las Vegas in game two of the Western Conference final. During 17 minutes, he stopped all five shots he faced and became the first netminder in the expansion era to play his first game in the playoff round leading to the Stanley Cup Finals.

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Making your NHL debut in the Conference Finals? Not a problem for Jake Oettinger 👏

Congrats, Otter! pic.twitter.com/K66gBHs75Q

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) September 9, 2020

A first-round draft pick in 2017 who departed BU after three seasons, Oettinger became the 87^th Terrier to suit up in the NHL. He led BU to the Hockey East championship and NCAA regional final in 2017-18. This season, the Minnesota native played 38 games with the Stars’ AHL affiliate, fashioning a .917 save percentage, tops among league rookies. After the game Oettinger told the Dallas Morning News:

“That’s sometimes how the game works” Obviously, my position, I can’t really go out there and make anything happen. I just kind of have to wait for it to come to me. I’ve played in games where I’ve had 20 shots in a period and games where I’ve had one or two shots in a period. It’s part of the job description.”

● NHL.com report

● Dallas Morning News report

● Elite Prospects Page

Oettinger is the eighth BU netminder to play in the NHL. The first was John Aiken, who was called from the stands at Boston Garden in March 1958 as the emergency goalie to play for the visiting Montreal Canadiens. Rick DiPietro, the only other BU goalie to be drafted in the first round (he was #1 overall), logged the most NHL games with 318. US Olympic hero Jim Craig is second with 30 games. The others are John Curry, Cleon Daskalakis (photo), Michel Laroque and Matt O’Connor.  Craig, Curry, Daskalakis and Laroque all were All-Americans at BU.

The list of all Terriers who have played in the NHL is found at this link. The list, which includes the players’ NHL stats, is from the BU Hockey Almanac issued prior to the 2019-20 season, during which Joel Farabee, Kieffer Bellows and now Oettinger have made their debuts.

 

►A series of Wednesday night Tweets from ESPN’s John Buccigross about the status of the upcoming NCAA Ice Hockey season:

"The 11 Division I men’s and women’s ice hockey conferences will announce TOMORROW that the start of the D1 #CawlidgeHawkey season will be delayed. Each conference will announce details on game schedules including the start dates individually.

"Expect NCAA to reduce the number of minimum games needed to make NCAA tourney, that will allow leagues to play league only or regional only schedules and still have tournament. The “big” schools are hoping to be tied into basketball. So when basketball starts hockey starts..

"..Hockey East pushing hard for November start. Putting schedules and protocols together. Might be voted on by next week by Athletic Directors.

"Each league acting independently Possibilities: Big Ten creating a bubble Hockey East leaning toward in conference play. Atlantic Hockey will start league play in January and will start non-league competition in November. All are very confident in a season.."