San Jose Sharks
Why Warsofsky Starting Ferraro-Liljegren in OT…Made Sense?
CALGARY — Put away the pitchforks for Ryan Warsofsky.
On Thursday, the San Jose Sharks head coach began overtime against the Edmonton Oilers with what appeared to be an unusual trio, center Alex Wennberg, and defensemen Mario Ferraro and Timothy Liljegren.
Except, if you look at how teams have started OT this season against the Oilers’ super trio of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard, it really wasn’t that unusual.
Consider, first, that there really isn’t a trio in the NHL like McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard to start overtime. In McDavid and Draisaitl, that’s two top-10, arguably top-five players in the league, both who happen to be centers. Bouchard is a point-per-game defenseman.
Look at how head coaches around the NHL have tried to solve the McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard problem to begin OT this season:
| TEAM | DATE | FORWARD | FORWARD | DEFENSE | DEFENSE | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose Sharks | 1/29/26 | Wennberg | Ferraro | Liljegren | OTL | |
| Washington Capitals | 1/24/26 | Strome | Dowd | Chychrun | OTL | |
| Nashville Predators | 1/13/26 | O'Reilly | Josi | Wilsby | OTW | |
| Los Angeles Kings | 1/10/26 | Byfield | Laferriere | Doughty | SOW | |
| Buffalo Sabres | 12/9/25 | McLeod | Tuch | Dahlin | OTW | |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 11/20/25 | Cirelli | Hagel | Moser | OTW | |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 11/15/25 | Staal | Gostisbehere | Walker | OTL | |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 11/12/25 | Couturier | Konecny | Sanheim | OTL | |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 11/10/25 | Monahan | Marchenko | Werenski | OTL | |
| Dallas Stars | 11/4/25 | Steel | Heiskanen | Lindell | SOW | |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 11/1/25 | Bedard | Burakovsky | Vlasic | OTL | |
| New York Rangers | 10/30/25 | Miller | Borgen | Gavrikov | OTW | |
| Vancouver Canucks | 10/26/25 | Pettersson | DeBrusk | Hronek | OTW | |
| Ottawa Senators | 10/21/25 | Pinto | Stutzle | Sanderson | OTL | |
| Calgary Flames | 10/8/25 | Backlund | Sharangovich | Andersson | SOW: CGY started OT on PP |
What stands out? Nobody really knows what to do against the arguably best OT trio in the NHL.
And Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch knows it, starting this trio in every single OT possible. It was also who he went to immediately on opening night, after a Calgary 4-on-3 power play to begin overtime ended.
“I’ve seen multiple different teams start two defenders and a forward,” Sports 1440’s Jason Gregor, who’s watched the Oilers for decades, said. “Some have even used a more defensive-minded forward.”
Like the San Jose Sharks, teams have avoided matching up their best player initially against McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard, hoping to give their best a more advantageous match-up later in overtime against the rest of the Oilers. That’s what Warsofsky was hoping to do for Macklin Celebrini.
The Los Angeles Kings kept their most dangerous offensive forwards, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe, off the ice to begin overtime in January. Same with the Washington Capitals, who withheld Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin. These are just a couple examples.
To that point, dropping the puck with a more defensively-oriented center and two defensemen has been a common OT plan: The Nashville Predators with Ryan O’Reilly, the Carolina Hurricanes with Jordan Staal, and the Dallas Stars with Sam Steel are examples of that. This also reserves their top offensive weapons for better match-ups.
This lines up with how the San Jose Sharks kicked off with Wennberg and two defenseman.
“We wanted to try to shut down McDavid and Draisaitl. [Our] guys were doing a pretty good job all night,” Warsofsky said. “We get the puck and we get what we want and we turn it over.”
Warsofsky is referring to an unforced Liljegren turnover that kept Celebrini off the ice. Zach Hyman would score, and the Sharks lost 4-3 in OT.
The #SJSharks shouldn’t have let this game even get to overtime, but this series from Liljegren is b-a-d — BAD.
The turnover at 4:20 is inexcusable, you had the time and space to get your superstar on the ice, but instead Oilers take full advantage of sloppy hockey. pic.twitter.com/AXizOk2ZeB
— SnipeCity420 (@SnipeCity420) January 30, 2026
There are, of course, teams who have tried their best to go best-on-best against McDavid and company: The Philadelphia Flyers with Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim and the Chicago Blackhawks with Connor Bedard and Alex Vlasic are…attempts.
But what all this tells you?
First, and once again, head coaches around the league don’t know how to handle McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard.
The second thing, the San Jose Sharks don’t have a No. 1 defenseman a la Roman Josi or Zach Werenski or Rasmus Dahlin for a truly competitive best-on-best match-up with the Oilers superstar trio. So Warsofsky has to work with what he’s got to work with.
In this case, it was Ferraro and Liljegren, who actually appeared to do relatively well against McDavid at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick, on Thursday: Ferraro was the most-used Shark against McDavid at 10:13, followed by Liljegren at 8:52. Both, on the ice, outscored and outshot McDavid. Dmitry Orlov, San Jose’s ostensible No. 1 blueliner, saw 3:55 at 5-on-5 against McDavid. So this might explain Ferraro over say Orlov.
Of course, there’s always an argument to start OT with Celebrini, no matter what. He’s in the top-5, top-10 player conversation, and the San Jose Sharks are tied with Montreal Canadiens for an NHL-best nine overtime wins this season, fueled mostly by Celebrini.
But it’s also fair to recognize Warsofsky’s dilemma: The McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard trio presents a special match-up problem, not just for the Sharks, but for the entire league.
His solution was reasonable, it just didn’t work.
So RHD Liljegren cost the team the game in EDM wkth his unforced turnover. And RHD Klingberg cost the team the game in CGY.
But they waived RHD Iorio.
So many questions ….
The OT decision would have looked a lot less stupid if that turnover doesn’t happen and Celebrini gets on the ice. But Liljegren had one of the all time bad 10 second sequences there.
And Klingberg is just too soft in front of the net. He has a very weak stick and he doesn’t prevent anyone from getting exactly where they want to go… He’s fine when the puck is moving the other way, but his lack of physicality is sometimes a major issue
Let it out, clear your system…i do think Ilorio is some top 4 pairing guy to come, he plays too soft at his age and tries to do more than he is capable. I fully wish they would have moved on from Lily instead, but not going to make my heart or brain work overtime being pissed off about Ilorio going. Aren’t you one of the don’t fall in love with young players crew? This is one of those reasons. But Ilorio is not better than either of those two right now, and IF he does evolve into better than… Read more »
So … I take the bigger picture. If I was asked which RHD n the current team would be on a Sharks team which is a legit Cup contender, I’d have ranked Iorio first. Why? Well, part of this is because the other RHD aren’t great. But mostly because he fit the forward-looking need really well. Plus he played well with Sam Dickinson in the last several games they were paired together. Those were the two youngest d-men on the team. A combo of a top talent like Dickinson with a good compliment like Iorio had long-term potential. I’d walk… Read more »
You’re over reacting.
I’m the one who says don’t fall in love with the young guts unless it’s Celly or Smith and probably Misa now.
iorio lost his job to his fellow large right handed shooting defenseman named vincent, his play and skillset weren’t good enough to get into the top 4 of even this shitty d corps. the level of consternation from the online portion of the fan base over what was ultimately a small waiver pickup when the team had an injury crisis early in the season is pretty wild
Who are the good young RHD that the Sharks can get? Because Klingberg isn’t a long-term solution and Liljegren probably isn’t either. Maybe Desharnais stays because he’s got a bit of the Reaves role. But outside of Pohlkamp, who is RHD playing the left side in college, who? I’m not trying to use hyperbole, but when you look at Cup winners, Iorio’s was the RHD who looks most like a guy on one of those blue lines. They don’t look like Klingberg or Liljegren. Maybe Desharnais? I really don’t follow the rational when there were other ways to delay this… Read more »
Did Warso help you write this article before his meeting with Hasso? Lots of copium here. Would be better to state Warso effed up and needs to be better with personnel decisions.
No, I did actual research myself before jumping to conclusions with the mob. I, honestly, was surprised by the data.
You want to act like Warsofsky was trying to re-invent the wheel here, when he was simply confounded with the same problem that 31 other coaches have, and he acted in a fairly common way, emphasize defense, save your best player for later.
It just didn’t work out, but more because of an unusual player brain cramp.
We did not see Edmonton “saving” their best player(s) for later. If one wants to counter with defense how about at least using your best defensive skaters since three on three has loads of open ice. The Sharks young guns were making McJesus and Drai look slow in that game to me. Ferraro on three on three is a hard pass no matter what the other team throws out.
Yeah they have the best, we established, used to each other… they can say here this is best 3 in world match up if you can. Sharks may have that in a couple years! We can put Mack and will and Dickenson out and say good luck! They put their 3 best defensive players, their 3 best defensive skaters are young and talented, but those 3 have years of wisdom and forwards have yrs of playing together. Think of Mack/Will in 5yrs they already have connection in 5 yrs will be radar like. However, I am still playing with house… Read more »
might make sense to add what the sharks typically do to start overtimes. iirc wennberg typically gets the start with a non-smith/celebrini forward and 1 dman, so the difference this time is mostly about adding an extra dman? in any case, a bit interesting that warso went from trusting lilje with the most toi and the ot start in edmonton to healthy scratching him for the next game, hopefully it was for more than the 2 horrendous ot plays because that’s a little more reactionary than i’d want the coach to be in that situation, lets guys he clearly didn’t… Read more »
Or maybe the Sharks need more knowledgeable fans…
The rebuttal to this argument is that Warso went away from his own winning tendencies. Wennberg-Eklund-Lily were his standard goto option for starting OTs. Yet in this case, imo he over-thought (Galaxy-brained) it. His decision to add BOTH Mukh & Kurachev to the lineup also cost another game. Again imo, too many lineup changes can cause unconnected play, which we all saw against CAL. Especially if the incoming players haven’t played in a long time & are rusty, which Kurachev show plenty of signs of. Warso decision to play Kurachev (small, soft & speedy) over Regenda (big, heavy but slower)… Read more »
having either of those guys go to the ‘Cuda for a conditioning assignment would also have preserved a roster spot. And you know, preserved Iorio.
That’s a good GMMG question. Warso uses the players he has but GMMG chooses which players Warso gets to use.
Would either player have accepted a CA to the Cuda? Mukh maybe but doubt it for Chevy.
Don’t even get me started on losing my boy Vinny…
especially after Mukh will go back to IR in a couple of games
Keep tha bad juju to yourself
Correct and giving the front office time to attempt trades. Maybe s/t is cooking about which we are not aware.
According to a PensionPlanPuppets article, players on conditioning stints still count towards the 23-man roster.
didn’t recall that. Is that the way it worked with Misa?
it was an injury thing so different. He wasn’t on the roster when he went down.
If the player is coming off IR (like Misa was) they dont count for the 23 man roster. They can stay on IR while “conditioning”. If it is the 5 game inactive conditioning assignment then they do count for the roster.
Oh, same
They have to agree to go.
Didn’t mind Mukh in the lineup. Thought he played a low event game. not sure if LIly was the guy to pull, it is what it is. I don’t see Kurashev replacing Regenda ever again. Also we don’t know who is sick and to what extent.
Eklund is a weak link against that trio with that much open ice. Drai could literally give Eklund a bigger back ride while skating down the ice to score the winning goal. From perspective there is no rebuttal. Wario has a perspective backed by data that those players accrued against that trio and he compared it to other professional coaches solutions to the same problem. None of us have rebuttals, we just have complaints.
“Piggy back ride”… bigger back ride still applies though.🤣
One point maybe missing from the article…? Didn’t Celly just get done playing a lot of the last 3 minutes of regulation? With that in mind, you know he’s not coming off once he goes on the ice in overtime. Best to let him recharge so he’s at somewhat peak effectiveness.
pretty sure Mcdavid and Drisitle did not come off the ice for the final 3 minutes either. The key to overtime is possession and players that have great puck skills and awareness to circle back and re group and maintain possession at all cost because once you give up the puck there is a good possibility that you will not get it back. That is why putting 2 D out is not advisable because you are just conceding that you are not going to possess the puck.
Warios coaching worked as intended until Lily had a brain cramp.
I will preface by saying I don’t have my pitchfork out for Warso – I hated this specific decision, but I will also give credit when it is due. I loved his decision to go with 4 forwards (and then 5, and then 6) trying to get the game tied in CAL yesterday. It didn’t work, but who cares – fricking go for it! But that is the point. Play to win. Don’t play trying not to lose. With all due respect, all of these other examples would be meaningful if there was an clear trend that emerged from it.… Read more »
I appreciate the work done to put this together and the opportunity to consider the argument. And Sheng’s conclusions aren’t wrong, I just don’t think the info in the table is really indicative of an approach like Warsovsky went with. There are a lot of really good players in there. I’m willing to be proven wrong but I doubt the Capitals usually start OT with Wilson/Ovechkin. Doesn’t seem like a 3-on-3 winning combo. And it’s not like trying to counter the EDM pair with two defensemen is all that common, and when it’s done it’s with defensemen way better than… Read more »
The best way to counter McDavid and Draisaitl is to not let them touch the puck. In that sense putting out your best faceoff guy and hoping they win the draw is probably the best recipe for success. Wennberg is not that guy. 44.8% at the dot this year and he had won 5 of 18 faceoffs before OT against Edmonton.
my guess is that the strategy was to not let the oilers trio touch to puck, and thus warso put the faceoff guy he trusts the most out there – note that on the pp warso tends to have wennberg take the faceoffs despite macklin being out there as well on that unit, and beyond those two there aren’t really any options for an ot opening faceoff
Yes Warsofsky clearly views Wennberg as the Sharks key faceoff guy. I just question that evaluation considering he’s never been a good faceoff guy in his career. He’s 46.2% at the dot in his career and has never had a season above 50%
Not many mentions how Liljegren was hit from behind/tripped into goalie. Effing NHL telling refs to prefer certain teams over others.
Refs rarely call that sort of thing.
Corey Perry made a career out of going to the net, giving a cross-check to create space and scoring off of it. There are some things which may be penalties in the rule book, but aren’t called in games.
The result wasn’t what we wanted, obviously. But Liljegren’s turnover wasn’t part of the plan. Had that not occurred, it looked like it was working as the coach wanted – they’d weathered one possession by EDM’s big three and had gained possession for Celebrini and Smith.
Exactly. Everyone’s blame nag the coach for an unexpected mistake by a player.
Every rando on the internet is a Jack Adams winner, especially the moment the game is over. I am guilty of some of this sometimes (still GM of the Year on the PS5), but the extent to which people are going on and on about this is way overboard. Throwing a good defensive center (Wennberg) plus two defensemen out there made sense. You hopefully weather the storm then put Celebrini/Smith/Orlov or similar line out there for the counterattack. The problem is the Sharks just don’t have that much defensive depth. It’s not like Warsofsky had Jaccob Slavin sitting on the… Read more »
Possibly the most bizarre part of the group Warso put out there was Wennberg. Who’d had one of his worst games in the face-off dot. Winning that face-off is a big deal.
That’s a tough choice. It’s like a goalie who lets in a goal on the first shot. Sometimes it means he’s a sieve but other times he solidifies after the coach shows some faith in him. Considering Wennberg’s overall body of work I don’t think it was crazy for Warsofsky to go to him.
Exactly.
For the record, EDM is 7-8 in OT. Even with McDavid & Co.
The Sharks are 11-4.
The Sharks were able to move the puck out of their zone during the third period when McDavid/Draisaitl were off the ice (not often!). Edmonton is carried on the backs of two of the world’s best players.
The Sharks’ defense is still below mediocre at this point in the rebuild, and none of their centers was doing well on faceoffs that game. Warzo should have gone with his best OT group, and not tried to overthink it. Don’t coaches-turned-commentators always say to keep it simple?
It’s hard to argue with the results over the course of the season. Warso has succeeded in creating a team that plays for each other and they have improved a ton. Without Mack though these Sharks would be bottom three. He’s a superstar. So, are you gong to play to lose or play to win? Put him out there against McJesus and Draisaitl and give him a chance to perform against the best because he’s earned it and because worst case scenario he will learn. Plus, the Sharks D Warso put out there are hovering around replacement level, so you… Read more »
The bigger question I have for Warso (and Grier) is why are they still playing Klingberg on PP1. He’s skates slow, thinks slow, fumbles passes constantly, fails to keep the puck in, advertises his passes ahead of time to give the opposing pk a jump on the receiver of the pass. When they run the PP through him, it slows down to a predictable crawl. He gets beat for chances against. 53 games with no improvement whatsoever ought to be enough data to know he’s not good enough. Play 5 forwards with Mack or Smith at the top, or play… Read more »
That might have been the best “defensive” group Warso could put on the ice. However after you defend you have to possess the puck long enough to make a full line change. That is not Tim and Mario’s strength. I think Eklund or Graf make much more sense to create a more balenced line.
If you have defense men that are capable it’s not a bad idea. If most of the Sharks defensemen were capable of keeping the puck after they do get it could be a good idea. Sharks are not going to carry the puck and get away from superstars. If we had puck moving defenseman than ok. Coach is trying things without right personnel.
Was just watching CAR/LA which went to OT (because of course it did – the Kings are seemingly incapable of playing a game that doesn’t involve a loser point). CAR started OT with 2 D. Against the Kings!! So I think it is safe to say that is a team strategy for them, not a McDavid/Draisaitl strategy.