Unpacking the surprising upset: Discover how LaCombe's defensive dominance and offensive surge, alongside other key factors, fueled the Ducks' historic playoff triumph.
In their first playoff series since 2018, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and earned their first series win since 2017, when they ironically defeated the Oilers.
The Ducks have an entirely different roster than that team from nine years ago. In 2017, their core consisted of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler, Cam Fowler, etc., who were taking their final kicks at the can together. The new core, which consists of Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke, etc., is on the completely opposite trajectory.
At the beginning of the season, the 2025-26 Ducks set their seemingly lofty goal to make the playoffs and potentially make some noise once there. Well, they made the playoffs, and they made noise, eliminating the defending back-to-back Western Conference Champions, who employ (potentially) the two best hockey players on the planet, in six games.
Very few picked the Ducks to win the series, so here are three primary keys to the Ducks’ success in their opening round victory:
Author’s note: These are keys from the Ducks’ perspective. The Oilers had injuries to impact players like Leon Draisaitl (missed 14 games heading into the playoffs, lower body), Connor McDavid (appeared to have sustained an injury to his right leg/ankle in Game 2), Jason Dickinson (missed three games heading into the playoffs and missed games 2 and 3 of this series, lower body), and Adam Henrique (exited game 1, lower body), which were potentially their most significant factor in losing this series to Anaheim.
Jackson LaCombe
If the Conn Smythe were to be awarded after the first round, a relatively easy case could be made for Anaheim’s star defenseman Jackson LaCombe. As of Friday morning, he’s tied for second among all players in scoring with nine points (1-8=9) in six games and leads all defensemen. At 5v5, he played 138:24 TOI, and in those minutes, the Ducks accounted for 64.06% of the shots on goal, 60.81% of the shot attempts, and 65.63% of the expected goals.
More impressively, he was hard-matched against Connor McDavid as much as Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville could manage. When LaCombe was on the ice against McDavid (66:09) at 5v5, the Ducks won the shots on goal battle 42-19, the shot attempt battle 78-50, accounted for 67.3% of the expected goals, and outscored the Oilers 6-2.
LaCombe, forever calm and poised, defended rushes all series perfectly, dictated tempo, was efficient on breakouts, active along the blueline, and joined as many rushes as he could to generate offense for Anaheim. He broke out in the 2024-25 season, continued to turn heads during the 2025-26 season, and has now put the hockey world on notice, playing his best when it matters most.
“This guy (pointing to LaCombe) is really good,” Ducks forward Troy Terry said after Game 6 when asked about defeating McDavid. “That team had been to two cup finals, and we have a lot of respect for him and those players. He really is that good, and to watch the task that this guy and (Jacob) Trouba had. These guys were on him most of the time, but collectively, we all had to play him and we were all aware of it.”
Special Teams
In the 2025-26 regular season, the Ducks held the 23rd-ranked power play (18.6%) in the NHL and the 27th-ranked penalty kill (76.4%). The Oilers were the NHL’s top power play team (30.6%) and had the 20th-ranked penalty kill (77.8%). Logic would have suggested the Oilers had the advantage should the series be decided by special teams.
The Ducks were one of the NHL’s most penalized teams in the regular season, racking up 814 penalty minutes (6th in NHL). They flipped the script in the first round of the playoffs and averaged just 6.5 PIMs/Game, the lowest rate of any team in the first round. They didn’t kill at a spectacular rate in the playoffs (71.4%), but only allowing four power play goals to the Edmonton Oilers is a feat not to be ignored.
The deciding factor on special teams through the series was the Ducks’ power play. The Ducks converted on eight of their 16 opportunities with the man-advantage and deployed two equally potent units capable of scoring in a variety of ways. Ducks assistant coach Jay Woodcroft, former Oilers head coach, found the puzzle pieces he liked together on each unit and crafted several ways for each unit to execute clever in-zone sequences to generate optimal chances.
One of Woodcroft’s units featured John Carlson at the top of the umbrella and accounted for five power play goals, while the other featured Jackson LaCombe and accounted for three (all from Cutter Gauthier).
“The best part about it was that in the whole series, we didn’t take that many penalties,” Quenneville said. “That was one of the things that we had to do in order to have some success. As infrequent as they were on the power play, their top guys are going to have some confidence, and they can generate stuff off of that, and then everybody helps their team. That was a point of emphasis, and the guys did a good job of that.”
Joel Quenneville’s Adjustments (Tactical and Personnel)
This series was a six-game chess match between head coaches Joel Quenneville and Kris Knoblauch, along with their respective staffs. They each took turns adjusting and counteradjusting to personnel and tactical tweaks made by the other.
After losing Game 1 in Edmonton, Quenneville seemed to be deploying the exact same lineup for Game 2, but at the apparent last second, and keeping his cards close to the chest, he swapped his third and first-line left wingers, offering his club new looks and forcing his opponent to counter on the fly. He did the same thing between Games 5 and 6 in an attempt to disrupt any potential game plan Knoblauch had prepared.
Tactically, this series took on many forms despite high goal totals in every game. Edmonton took advantage of Anaheim’s wide eyes early in game one, controlling cycles and connecting plays at high speeds. From the first puck drop, Anaheim’s focus when it came to defending McDavid was to match him up against LaCombe when possible and hound him with backchecking pressure, creating a five-man unit with waves of defenders, and they were careful to keep a high F3 when 97 was on the ice.
Knoblauch tweaked his approach to a more streamlined, north-south game after Game 2, as the Oilers were turning a high number of pucks over in neutral ice when trying to manufacture connecting sequences. Ducks defenders were up to the task, evading heavy F1s and had supporting forwards low to help in precarious situations.
Ultimately, the Ducks and their coaching staff were able to draw the Oilers into playing their brand of hockey, trading chances, forcing neutral zone turnovers, and turning said turnovers into quick-strike offense.
“Jay (Woodcroft) was great. I think our coaching staff is outstanding. Gilly (Ryan McGill) with the penalty kill was outstanding as well,” Quenneville said after Game 6.
Quenneville and Co. will have a brand new set of challenges facing them in the second round, and a new chess match will present itself, whether they’ll face the Utah Mammoth or the Vegas Golden Knights. This series proved one thing: this coaching staff has the ability to manipulate their opponent to optimize the Ducks’ chances at advancing.