A Quick Oil Change
2025-26 NHL tactical trends: EDM penalty kill & DZ breakout
First off, thank you for making the Hockey Tactics 2026 launch day a success. Over 200 people have already bought the ebook. If you haven’t yet, you can get it here.
One of the challenging aspects of producing the ebook by myself, is having to scout all 32 NHL teams. I typically watch a period or two of each team in October to get a feel for what the coaching staff sets out to accomplish. A given game plan doesn’t always survive contact with the enemy, so I circle back in December for more in-depth analysis, then finalize the team diagrams in January and February.
This approach has worked for me since Hockey Tactics 2022, but it’s not foolproof.
For example, Paul Coffey rejoined the Edmonton Oilers’ coaching staff on February 18, 2026. Since Coffey’s return, EDM has made some tactical tweaks leading to improved shot suppression at 5v5 and at 4v5.
Conveniently, what EDM is now doing on the breakout (5v5) and in-zone (4v5) looks a lot like what it was doing this time last year, which I’d already detailed in Hockey Tactics 2025.
Here are the relevant HT2025 pages.
On the breakout, EDM increases DZ exit success rates by bringing four players back and only pushing one winger out of the zone, as opposed to two wingers earlier in 2025-26. The more consistently the Oilers break out, the less time they spend in DZ and the fewer shots they concede.
The 2-2 Box, which EDM started the season with, is increasingly popular across the league. Yet it would appear that the Oilers are more comfortable with one aggressive F chasing high in the zone and the three other skates packing the slot in a 1-1-2.
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