The season is over for the Dallas Stars in unfortunate and familiar fashion, a loss in the Western Conference Final to the Edmonton Oilers. Once again, the Oilers are Stanley Cup Final bound, while the Stars are heading for the offseason with a feeling of emptiness and missed opportunity.

Despite taking a 1-0 series lead with a thrilling 6-3 win in the opening game of the series, the Stars dropped the next four games in a row which included Thursday night's frustrating Game 5 and season-ending loss by a 6-3 final score.

For the second consecutive season, the Oilers will face the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final and hope to flip the script this time to avenge last season's heartbreaking seven-game series loss.

Stars head coach Pete DeBoer, who caused controversy by pulling goaltender Jake Oettinger (who did allow two goals on the first two shots he faced), had a pretty telling statement on the last two clubs standing via The Dallas Morning News.

“There’s no doubt the two best teams are playing for the Cup,’’ he said. “No doubt.”

The Stanley Cup Final is set to begin Wednesday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, and once again, the Stars will be watching from home instead of competing in the championship round they believed they should have reached.

Did Stars coach Pete DeBoer pull Jake Oettinger too early?

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DeBoer is facing scrutiny and criticism for pulling the plug on Oettinger early on in the game, a decision that is being questioned; meanwhile, those on the other side would point out that Oettinger did it to himself by not coming up with a save when his team needed it.

DeBoer didn't mince words in his postgame media availability, pointing toward Oettinger's poor record in six of the last seven postseason games against the Oilers.

“I didn’t blame it all on Jake,’’ DeBoer said. “But you know, the reality is if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton, and we gave up two goals on two shots in an elimination game. So it was partly to spark our team, and partly that the status quo had not been working.”

There will be lots of questions for the Stars to answer going into the offseason, including even potential speculation about DeBoer's job security.