NEW YORK — The New York Rangers have the same number of goals as the bottom-feeding San Jose Sharks this season at Madison Square Garden. They have one fewer win there.

Thursday’s 6-5 overtime loss to San Jose was New York’s most concerning game of a season that’s been defined largely by solid two-way effort, even if offensive results haven’t followed. The game against the Sharks, a team looking for its first win of the season, was straight out of the 2024-25 playbook: poor defensive play, lulls in urgency and a result reflecting both.

The Rangers are now 0-4-1 on New York ice. Thursday was the first time all season they managed more than one goal at home, but that was hardly a bright spot considering how much they struggled to keep Macklin Celebrini and San Jose’s skilled players away from dangerous scoring areas.

“We talked about making it hard to play against in this building,” captain J.T. Miller said after the game. “It’s just not acceptable for what we’re trying to do around here.”

At practice Wednesday, coach Mike Sullivan laid into his players during special teams work, then held a long huddle at the end of the skate. He wasn’t happy with how the team played Monday in a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, and defenseman Adam Fox said he stressed responding well Thursday against the Sharks.

Sullivan’s message was “nothing we didn’t know coming in,” Fox said Wednesday, but it didn’t look like it to start the game against the Sharks. San Jose hemmed the Rangers in their defensive zone in the first two minutes. A defensive lapse — Mika Zibanejad leaving Adam Gaudette open in front of the net to join Vladislav Gavrikov in pursuit of Collin Graf — led to an early 1-0 deficit. Igor Shesterkin had little chance to react to Gaudette’s snap shot from the slot.

The Rangers managed only five shots in the first period. Worse, they did not look like a desperate or well-structured team. Matt Rempe briefly got the crowd engaged by fighting Ryan Reaves after the Sharks’ bruiser hit Juuso Pärssinen, but that didn’t work: Fox committed a hooking penalty 16 seconds after the fight, and Celebrini scored almost instantly on the power play.

“As disappointing as it gets,” Fox said of his team’s start to the game. “Pretty piss poor out of us, and not the way we want to play hockey. There’s really not much to say.”

To make matters worse, Rempe left the game with an upper-body injury after the fight. Sullivan said afterward that he’s still being evaluated.

Raddysh from far out. pic.twitter.com/4CWptBgYtF

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 23, 2025

Taylor Raddysh and Celebrini traded goals before the period ended. Celebrini’s came only nine seconds before intermission. He finished his second career hat trick at the end of the second period — also with under 10 seconds before the frame ended.

Sullivan, visibly frustrated after the game, credited the Sharks’ young, talented players with having strong games, but he did not like the chances Celebrini got at the end of periods. He wired dangerous wrist shots past Shesterkin on both.

“It’s a lack of awareness, situational play, managing the game the right way,” the coach said. “Controlling those situations is how you win. We obviously have to learn how to win.”

It’s a harsh assessment but one that’s hard to disagree with — not after Thursday night, and not after a season of games like it in a disastrous 2024-25.

Fox said the Rangers might have “underestimated (San Jose) as a team.” Miller said they “didn’t really respect our opponent.” That’s a concerning line of thinking. A team seeking its first home win can’t take any opponent lightly.

“This is a good league, and there are good players on every team,” Sullivan said. “If you don’t bring a certain diligence to your game every night, you run the risk of being beaten. You more than likely will.”

New York does not boast a roster with as much high-end skill as many other playoff-contending clubs. For this iteration of the Rangers to win games, it has to play with high compete and stingy defense, like it did for most of the first seven games of the season.

Sullivan said the players talked among themselves between the first and second periods, and Miller told the coach, “We’ll be ready” entering the final 40 minutes of play.

The Rangers indeed looked better after the disastrous first, quickly tying the score and even taking a short-lived lead in the second period. Zibanejad scored a power-play goal off a nifty pass from Alexis Lafrenière, and Pärssinen and Raddysh contributed bottom-six goals. Miller credited an increase in urgency as the difference between periods.

“It’s a pretty simple game,” he said.

The results of a game are more complex than a battle of desire, but the Sharks certainly led in that category Thursday. Will Cuylle lost a puck battle before Celebrini’s goal at the end of the first. New York committed five minor penalties in the game — an indication of poor discipline — and the Sharks retook the lead by beating the Rangers to two loose pucks near the net in the third.

Raddysh, who spent the entirety of the season in the bottom six before getting elevated during play Thursday, was the primary reason the game reached overtime. He beat Alex Nedeljkovic with a slap shot midway through the third, matching Celebrini’s hat trick with his third goal of the night.

WHAT A RIP. pic.twitter.com/LQZecbvrde

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 24, 2025

Raddysh played a season-high 15:21. If this game was any indication, Sullivan could continue trying him higher in the lineup. The organization could also try to look to top prospect Gabe Perreault, currently in the AHL, for a top-six spark. None of the Rangers’ five-on-five goals Thursday came from Artemi Panarin, Zibanejad, Miller, Lafrenière or Cuylle, the mainstays on the top two lines this season. Panarin has points in only four of nine games so far (44.44 percent). Last season, he had at least one point in 57 of the 80 games in which he played (71.25 percent).

Sullivan thought the Rangers played harder after the first period but said they didn’t play smart. He saw his players chase the game and, against the Wild and the Sharks, digress from their strong early-season defense. In overtime, Shesterkin gave the puck away on a long pass attempt, and Miller failed to get the puck to Braden Schneider before the game-winning goal. Celebrini seized it, then fed a wide-open Will Smith for a one-timer, which he blasted into the net.

“Shots from the top of the crease, hashmarks, guys just on the inside: I don’t care how good your goalie is, (if) you’re letting up one-timers from there, they’re going to score a lot of the time,” Fox said. “It’s the NHL. I think we got what we deserved tonight.”

The Rangers have seen how thin their margin for error is this season. Performances like Thursday’s make winning hard against rebuilding teams, let alone when facing the clubs New York will have to contend with for any chance at significant success.