Winners, losers after Rangers throttle Sharks, move back into playoff spot in East

In a must-win game coming off a brutal loss 24 hours prior, the Rangers needed their best player to make a difference. And Artemi Panarin did just that, setting the tone with two goals, a pair of snipes less than two minutes apart in the first period to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. They never looked back in a convincing 6-1 win. Panarin’s done his part with 10 goals in March and 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) with points in 12 of his past 14 games. He has three multi-point games in his past five and passed Walt Tkaczuk (153) for the sixth most multi-point games in Rangers history. His 33 goals this season are second most in his NHL career.

One night after saying how inexcusable the Rangers’ loss in Anaheim was Friday, Adam Fox went out and delivered a virtuoso performance against the Sharks. He scored two goals for the third time in his career, led all skaters with six shots on goal, tied for most shot attempts (nine) and also blocked four shots at the other end of the ice, in a 22:29 tour-de-force. The Rangers expected goal share with Fox on the ice 5v5 was a whopping 68.26 percent, per Natural Stat Trick.

A nightmarish season continued Saturday for Alexandar Georgiev. The former Rangers goalie was actually quite good to start out, even despite Panarin’s pair of wicked snipes. But he looked awkward on Fox’s second-period goal when J.T. Miller chipped the puck off his skate, and then whiffed on Jonny Brodzinski’s goal off the rush in the third period. The Sharks defensive breakdowns were galling, but at the end of the night, Georgiev allowed five goals or more for the seventh time this season, and his goals-against average ballooned to 3.66 and save percentage dropped to an unsightly .874. Not the season the 29-year-old envisioned heading into unrestricted free agency.

Jonathan Quick was loudly booed during pregame introductions by Sharks fans, more so for his days playing for the rival Los Angeles Kings. At the end of the night, the Sharks faithful had plenty of reason to boo Quick some more, after he stopped 21 of 22 shots and made a string of sensational saves against Will Smith, Macklin Celebrini and Patrick Giles. The 39-year-old lost his shutout bid when Cam Lund scored his first NHL goal with 2:14 to play. But all in all, it was quite a good night for Quick, who hadn’t played in three weeks with Igor Shesterkin carrying the load down the stretch and starting nine straight.

How about some love for Jonny Brodzinski. After having his 10th goal of the season waved off in the first period because Mika Zibanejad interfered with Georgiev and then getting robbed on a point-blank chance in the second, Brodzinski finally reached double digits for the first time in his NHL career when he beat Georgiev off the rush at 3:08 of the third. The 31-year-old scored just his 25th goal in 201 NHL games, but he’s now sitting on 10 in 43 games this season, and is two points shy of equaling his career best (19).

Macklin Celebrini is going to be an absolute stud in the NHL. The 2024 No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft leads all rookies as an 18-year-old averaging 0.88 points per game and is third in the rookie scoring race with 53 points (21 goals, 32 assists) in just 60 games. He was held off the score-sheet by Quick on Saturday, but the Sharks had better than a 61 percent expected goals share with him on the ice 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick. So, even though he was minus-4, which included being on for Vincent Trocheck’s short-handed goal in the third period, Celebrini was still awfully good. San Jose actually out-chanced New York 12-8 with the kid on the ice. He’s going to be special.

The Columbus Blue Jackets lasted 24 hours in the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. After a wild 7-6 shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday – one where they rallied from a 3-0 deficit — vaulted them into a postseason playoff berth by percentage points, the Blue Jackets fell back to earth with a 3-2 road loss to the Ottawa Senators. When the Rangers later crushed the Sharks on the West Coast, the Blue Jackets were again on the outside looking in at the playoffs, though they do have two important games in hand on the Rangers.

Vincent Trocheck had a string of prime scoring chances, but couldn’t break through until he scored a beauty short-handed, off the rush with J.T. Miller, at 16:53 of the third period. It was his 21st goal this season, second most on the Rangers, and third shorty. The Rangers now lead the League with 15 short-handed goals this season. Trocheck also was dominant in the face-off circle, where he won 89 percent of his draws (16 of 18), pacing the Rangers who walloped the Sharks 36-17 at the dot.