The San Jose Sharks welcome the New York Rangers into SAP Center.

Macklin Celebrini (twice) and Pavol Regenda scored, and the Sharks won 3-1.

Period 1

Celebrini goal: He was due, Wennberg gave him a great pass on the PP counterattack that he tipped into Martin. This one, great vision by Toffoli, Celebrini sneaks down and nobody minds him in front.

Regenda goal: What a pass by Misa! What a backhander by Regenda. But Misa, there’s the idea for keeping him up. There’s specialness there, just takes time.

Rangers call timeout: This is like the old Tank, no? The noise deafening, Rangers don’t know what hit them.

Graf penalty: Unfortunate to maybe let the Rangers off the hook so early? Just four minutes in, up 9-0 shots, 2-0

5 in: Good work by Ferraro and Liljegren to kill that PP bid. Ferraro didn’t buy the backhand fake pass, then Liljegren went against the grain for the clear, saw the open point.

6 in: Desharnais erases Lafreniere in corner to finish Rangers PP.

Celebrini goal: What a steal by Graf, just outguesses Soucy. Just thinking, watching Lafreniere get erased, we live in a world now where Graf is a far more valuable player than Lafreniere. Think about Lafreniere’s contract, $7.45 million AAV until 2032. Graf makes up for the penalty, for sure. Then Smith with elite vision there, soft backhand pass across slot that Celebrini just murders.

“MVP! MVP!! MVP!!!” chants start for Macklin. Love the energy. Crowd forgot they got tacos, too, now. A couple minutes later, they do tacos announcement, but MVP chants were louder. This is what SAP Center should be.

9 in: Misa rips a centering pass that Gaudette wasn’t ready for. Like Misa’s confidence.

9 left: Big Nedeljkovic stop, he’s been making some saves. Smith loses it high to Panarin, and Panarin able to hold him off. San Jose Sharks can’t get too high on their own supply here, got to manage the game.

Graf holds off Trocheck and Robertson to keep the puck alive down low, like.

Carrick goal: Rangers are going to play with pride. Sharks don’t settle down puck to move out. Carrick actually knocks Celebrini down in front, don’t see that often, and slugs it past Nedeljkovic.

Can San Jose front run maturely? They’ll have to learn to do that in the coming years. They’ve given New York hope, not just with this goal, but just some general sloppiness of play. Sounds harsh, but I don’t think so. The very best teams can give you no hope for, maybe not 60 minutes, but most the game. That’s where the Sharks want to get to. That’s what’s been done to them in the last couple years.

4 left: Eklund appears more assertive being the top option on PP2. Maybe this is good for him? He’s the man transporting the puck up (instead of Celebrini on PP1), he goes back on the PP half-wall too on this unit, which is his customary position. He’s been good so far, both 5-on-5 and special teams.

Period 2

San Jose Sharks got to kill remainder of Ferraro penalty, then see if they can polish off Rags maturely.

Celebrini steals it off Perreault high, 2-on-1, don’t know if pass skipped on Smith, that was a gimme goal missed.

1 in: Celebrini just erased Selke candidate type Trocheck high along boards like it was nothing.

Soucy penalty: Soucy wants a piece of Regenda after Regenda forechecks him hard. Love that from Regenda, losing hockey from Soucy.

7 left: Liljegren erases Cuylle. Like I said, I’ve liked his game recently.

Borgen penalty: Regenda draws another penalty. Have liked San Jose Sharks’ period, but they need an insurance goal to separate.

Reaves has played just three shifts tonight, he was in and out of warm-ups, so I wonder if he’s dealing with something.

Period 3

Reaves out there early in period though.

4 in: Smith looked a little uncomfortable after the Borgen hit. But staying on bench.

7 in: Celebrini has been so close to the hat trick, another great Smith set-up, they’ve been fire tonight, puck beats Martin but skitters past post, Martin able to pounce on it.

Perreault penalty: That’s an elbow. Smith has to get ahold of his buddy haha. Mack looks OK, Perreault has got to learn to control himself, just flailing wildly there, sure it wasn’t intentional.

10 in: Great individual shift from Eklund, after sloppy PP work by Celebrini and Orlov that led to potential Rangers SH counterattack, and particularly Orlov here who lost the puck that Laba was about to jump on for a chance, Eklund tracked back hard to beat Laba to the puck, then took it coast to coast, to the net on Martin. Save, but that’s a winning shift, 200 feet of hockey.

4 left: Celebrini has actually had one of those very productive games that hasn’t been his best. Carrick goal and hasn’t been as clean with the puck as you’d like. Just launched a pass off Wennberg’s skate, think he was going for the long stretch, Wennberg was skating by, and it went out. Celebrini looked frustrated with himself after.

3 left: Empty net, puck skittering to it, Ostapchuk almost caught Gavrikov from behind, from way back. Impressive.