Oettinger and Wedgewood work with coach Reese to improve consistency

Pete DeBoer said earlier in the season his team might have the best goaltending in the league, and he might have been right at the time.
But Dallas has posted numbers that are mere mortal in recent games, and it does raise a little bit of concern about how this group stops the puck, both individually and as a team.

Dallas ranked fourth in the NHL through 12 games, at 2.48 goals per game, which included a stretch where Jake Oettinger was injured for five games. In the past 14 games, the Stars have allowed 3.36 goals per game, or 22nd best in the league. This leaves them with a solid number at 2.85 (9th overall), but of the previous 14 games, nine of them have included four goals or more.
"They haven't been as good, but I think we can help our goaltending more," DeBoer said. "We've been a little soft around our own net. The things that jump out at me are soft around the net and penalties. I think we're starting to clean up the penalty problems and the soft around the net is something we're spending time on."

The delicate balance between a team and its goalies is huge, and DeBoer has stressed from the start of training camp that he wants the Stars to be aggressive offensively but not lose their edge defensively. While Dallas has won a lot of analytical battles in recent games, it also has experienced some coverage breakdowns and mental mistakes, opening the door for teams like Minnesota (six goals), Winnipeg (five goals twice), and Tampa Bay (six goals).
So, is the defense breaking down or are the goalies missing pucks? Sometimes it's both, but nobody is going to point fingers or find blame. Instead, they want to calmly fix the problem together.
"No one is panicking; there's no red button being pushed," said goalie Scott Wedgewood. "You just look at what you can do better, and we'll be better as a team."
Wedgewood is a veteran who serves as the backup. The 30-year-old is 5-4-3 in 11 appearances and forms a great team with No. 1 goalie Jake Oettinger and goalie coach Jeff Reese. That's important because Oettinger, 23, is the youngest No. 1 goalie the team has had since moving to Texas in 1993 and he is in his first full year as the go-to guy.
"Reeser, Jakey and I, we look at what we look at," Wedgewood said when asked how the group deals with slumps. "We want to be as consistent as possible on how we're approaching things. I think early on in the year, I was doing a little chasing, trying to do a little more and Reeser said, 'You don't have to be perfect. I think sometimes you grip your stick a little tighter or get a little nit-picky when all you need to do is be in the right spot and just get hit.'"

That's not always easy to do. Wedgewood allowed three goals on three shootout attempts Sunday and lost to Minnesota 6-5. He was clearly upset in the postgame dressing room, and Reese talked with him for a while.
"Reeser is very positive," Wedgewood said. "Just trust the way you play. Sometimes you're going to let in a bad goal or you're going to make yourself look stupid. Stuff is going to happen. You can't really be perfect no matter how hard you try. I've always liked the three C's - calm, cool, collected. It's a game and if you beat yourself up, you're not helping."
Oettinger is learning a lot about the game these days. He is an enthusiastic workaholic who loves to practice, but he is being told to take more days off and work off-ice to be fresh and ready for the games. That's not an easy transition.
"I'll do whatever I have to do to be fresh for puck drop," he said. "I'm obviously playing a lot more than I did last year and you need to be smart about when you have to play hard and when you have to rest. Right now, I'm pretty much playing every other day, so the most important thing for me is to be fresh and ready for games. The coaches have told me to take my foot off the gas and rest more, and hopefully that pays off down the stretch."

And that's part of the transition. When things seem to go a little sideways, you have to find a new way to fix them. Maybe it's not extra practice that will help but being rested and focused for the game. Oettinger said he doesn't study the numbers every day, but he knows when they are good or bad. He said by focusing on his routine, the numbers will take care of themselves.
"Obviously, I want to be up there, and I know I'm one of the best goalies in the league, so I'm just going to stick with doing what I do well; working hard and sticking to the process," he said. "The bounces are not going to go your way sometimes, that's hockey but it all evens out in the end, and I'm confident that if I keep doing what I'm doing, I'll be up there with the top guys."
And that's what the Stars need. They have carved out a place among the leaders in goal-scoring, power play, penalty kill and faceoffs, so they want to get those goaltending numbers back to what they were earlier in the season.
When asked about how the goalies are dealing with the current situation, DeBoer said: "The nice thing is they both feel they should be the difference in the game every night they play. That's what you want."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.