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Quick bites: Sharks jump on Oilers early, flop in overtime

Posted on by Erika Towne

The San Jose Sharks could not have asked for a better start in Edmonton. Less than two minutes into the game, the team jumped out to a two-goal lead against the Edmonton Oilers, with Collin Graf getting the first point on the board just 26 seconds into the game and Adam Gaudette adding a second one 1:11 later. A Michael Misa goal midway through the first period put the Sharks up 3-0 and with a comfortable lead, the team was in good shape.

Knowing its opponent, San Jose was not content to sit back on its heels and ride out the rest of the game. Looking at Natural Stat Trick’s Corsi Differential in All Situations, you can see that through two periods, the Sharks did a very good job of sticking with a much more skilled and well-rounded Oilers team through two periods of the game.

San Jose was disciplined. It did not take penalties. In fact, it was so disciplined that Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky chose not to challenge what was likely a goal by Barclay Goodrow when it was waved off for goaltender interference in the second period.

San Jose did exactly what it needed to do, through two periods.

Game management to blame

But hockey is a three-period game, and sometimes it even needs overtime. Whether you like it or not, it feels like this game can be hung squarely on game management. I’m not one to criticize Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky a lot. I think that overall, he’s done a lot with what little he’s had, and that’s a tough position to be in. However, I think that last night, in the third period, he played to not lose rather than win the game.

He changed the lines that were working for him. Although, admittedly, some of that had to do with Toffoli’s illness. On the backend, when the goaltender was pulled and he shortened his defensive bench, he went with Dmitry Orlov, Mario Ferraro and Timothy Liljegren. Though, arguably, Vincent Desharnais had had one of his better games against his former team.

But perhaps the most egregious decision and the one that fans are likely most upset about was the lineup in overtime. Warsofsky put out Ferraro, Liljegren and Alex Wennberg to start overtime. When asked after the game why, his answer was simple.

The TLDW – defense first, win second. Once again, play not to lose. Except when your defense isn’t up to snuff, you can’t win. Credit to Liljegren for taking the heat for the failed turnover.

Don’t hang this one on Yaroslav Askarov

I know there aren’t a lot of you here, but there are some people on Sharks Twitter that will call for Askarov’s head from time to time. It’s hard to hang this one on the netminder. Through two periods, the Sharks played their game and Askarov made the saves he was supposed to.

However, when the team started playing not to lose, things changed. That first goal was the start of it all. The discipline started to fall off as well. For the first two periods, the Sharks kept the best power play in the league off the ice. If you’re afraid of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at 5-on-5, imagine what they’re like when they have more time and space. However, a bad delay of game penalty by Ferraro in the third period put the Sharks on the penalty kill and forced Askarov to make a ton of saves, none better than this one:

While the stats will show that he had a negative goals saved above expected last night — his expected goals against was supposed to be 2.71 and the Oilers scored four — let’s be honest, it was really like he allowed two power play goals with McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard firing bombs at him.

Highlight

It’s not the prettiest goal of the night, but it’s the one that might mean the most. Michael Misa with his second career NHL goal.

Misa with the lucky bounce off of Evan Bouchard’s leg and a goal. There are a few things to like about this goal. One, it gives the kid confidence, something he’s certainly lacking after an up and down season that’s seen him in and out of the lineup through no fault of his own. Now that he’s getting regular playing time, hopefully, he’ll start building.

Second, he’s doing the right thing. He wasn’t looking to immediately pass it to William Eklund because the lane wasn’t there. The shot wasn’t there either. So he looked for something different. The shot it off the goaltender’s pads looking for the deflection to Eklund for the goal. Eklund was there for the put back and if it hadn’t bounced off of Bouchard, it may have very well landed on Eklund’s stick and found the back of the net anyway. Misa’s hockey IQ is there and we love to see it from the kid.

Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Edmonton Oilers Jan. 29, 2026

First period
0:26 SJS Collin Graf from Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini
1:35 SJS Adam Gaudette from William Eklund
11:40 SJS Michael Misa from Timothy Liljegren and Sam Dickinson

Second period
No scoring

Third period
1:34 EDM Leon Draisaitl from Evan Bouchard and Kasperi Kapanen
16:55 EDM Connor McDavid from Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the extra attacker
19:01 EDM Evan Bouchard from Leon Draisaitl and Mattias Ekholm with the extra attacker

Overtime
1:06 EDM Zach Hyman from Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard

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