The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2025-26 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher. In this edition, Dan Bylsma, former coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and Seattle Kraken, and assistant with the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings, discusses the importance of clean breakouts and defensive-zone exits.

Being a good defending team is not all about playing well in defensive-zone coverage. The teams that are often good at defending in their zone usually are the teams that do it the least.

For the best defensive teams, a good portion of their success is due to their breakouts and defensive-zone exits allow them not to play defense. They break out and exit the defens

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