Sharpshooter shows why he’s the Rangers’ most lethal weapon

No offense, I was saying to Mika Zibanejad after the Rangers beat the Panthers 5-2 at the Garden on Tuesday, your shot isn’t quite Alex Ovechkin’s, because nobody’s is.

The center chuckled.

“None taken,” he said.

But, continuing the thought, as I suggested to him and now to you, the Zibanejad off-wing shot from the left circle is a singular weapon on the power play that should be the Rangers’ first option on the man-advantage.

Shouldn’t it?

“Well, I’m not going to say too much and give anything away,” No. 93 said. “But it’s one of our options. If anyone knows my game, they know if I have an opening, I like to shoot.”

Shooter Zibanejad scored twice against the Puddy Tats, once on a neat wraparound tuck that tied the game 1-1 while killing a penalty at 3:10 of the second period and once from his left-wing cubicle on the power play to extend his team’s lead to 3-1 at 16:08. That one wasn’t off a trademark one-timer, but rather on a snap shot after cradling Neal Pionk’s cross-ice feed and taking a short stride forward.

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There had to be some semblance of relief after this…

“When I’m open, you have to give credit to the guys on the other side of the ice who pull the penalty-killers over to that side,” said Zibanejad, who also recorded a pair of assists for a personal-best four-point game. “I’m not scoring if Chris [Kreider] isn’t in front for those screens. And the other four guys make my life a little easier.”

Except Kid K begs to differ.

“When Mika is hitting his spot, the way he pumps it, believe me, I’m not sure that he needs me there at all,” Kreider said. “I don’t know if I should say whether he’s our first option on the power play, but it probably should be. How’s that?”

The Rangers hardly put on a clinic against a struggling team that received inferior goaltending from Michael Hutchinson. The Blueshirts cobbled together three shots at five-on-five in the first period, the third coming just as a Panther was stepping out of the penalty box onto the ice. They went 12:42 without a shot in the third period.

Though they did tally five by virtue of Kevin Hayes’ empty-netter, the Blueshirts were only able to score once at five-on-five, making it four in the last five games and six in the last six. But the power play clicked twice, the special teams edge was 3-1 (Florida’s goal came on a first period power play), and no one is suggesting the 3-5-1 Blueshirts should give this one back.

Indeed, the power play, 2-for-6, is 6-for-18 over the last four contests. Continued production can ease the pain of five-on-five, where the degree of difficulty seems to be mounting by the game. Truth is, the Rangers didn’t create many chances in this one.

Again, though, Shooter Zibanejad doesn’t seem to need all that many. Over the last four years, including this one, the 25-year-old is scoring at a clip of 12.5 percent with 84 goals on 671 shots. That places him 33rd in the NHL over that span among players with at least 650 or more shots according to Hockey-Reference’s Play Index.

Zibanejad is not your classic dispatcher in the middle. Indeed, he said he moved to wing on a line with Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek for a spell in Ottawa when the Senators had an overload in the middle. The preference, though, is for No. 93 to remain in the middle.

He has been in the middle of it for the Rangers this year — their best player, as a matter of fact. He not only leads the club with five goals and nine points, he has been an extremely effective matchup center against the opposition’s top units. He’s faced Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Evgeny Kuznetsov.

“No pushovers for him,” said Kreider. “He’s the guy. I’ll just hitch my wagon to that pony.”

He’s the horse the Rangers obtained along with a second-rounder in exchange for Derick Brassard during the summer of 2016. Brassard was an important player for the Blueshirts in their playoff runs of 2013, 2014 and 2015, but this has been a winning trade for general manager Jeff Gorton. Zibanejad talked about being a leader for this team. That is what he has been.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am for him that he’s getting rewarded statistically, because I know early on he was playing really good hockey and not getting rewarded,” coach David Quinn said. “I’ll tell you, he’s a complete player. I knew he was a good player before I got this job, but I didn’t know he was this good.

“He’s got skill, he’s tough, he can skate. And he’s an unbelievable guy, too. He’s a fun guy to be around. We’re lucky to have him.”