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NEW YORK -- For the third straight game, Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist as the New York Rangers beat the San Jose Sharks 6-4 on Monday night.Kreider, who signed a four-year, $18.5 million contract on July 22, has three goals and three assists in New Yorks first three games. According to the team, he is the first Ranger since Brian Leetch in 1992-93 to tally six points in New Yorks first three games. He also became the first New York forward to record six points in three games to start a season since Bernie Nicholls and Darren Turcotte in 1990-91.Marc Staal, Rick Nash, Kevin Hayes, rookie Jimmy Vesey, Mats Zuccarello and Michael Grabner also scored for the Rangers, who have won two of their first three games this season.Tied 1-1 early in the second period, New York took a lead for good on Nashs first of the season 4:15 of the period. The sequence began when Rangers captain Ryan McDonaghs shot ricocheted off the end boards to Nash, who was in front of Martin Jones net.Jones finished with 22 saves.The lead grew to 3-1 6:06 later when Kreiders off-wing drive ticked off Jones stick and into the net.New York was 1 for 3 on the power play, and San Jose was 1 for 4.Staals one-timer 12:06 into the game put the Rangers ahead 1-0.Following Staals goal, though, the Sharks outshot the Rangers 7-2 for the remainder of the period, culminated by Logan Coutures 5-on-3 power-play tap-in with 57.5 seconds left.San Jose, which lost for the first time in three games this season, cut the deficit to 3-2 on Brent Burns second of the season at 9:13 of the third.New York struck back quickly as Hayes and Vesey scored 21 seconds apart to push the lead to 5-2. The goals were the first of the season for both, and for Vesey, the first of his NHL career. The Rangers signed the Hobey Baker Award winner from Harvard to a two-year, free agent contract on Aug. 19.The tack-on goals were significant as Burns scored his second of the game 1:20 after Vesey scored, followed by Joe Pavelskis first of the season at 15:31.Zuccarello and Grabner added empty net goals.New York goaltender Antti Raanta made 26 saves on 30 shots.Game notesNew York played without D Dan Girardi and D Kevin Klein, along with rookie LW Pavel Buchnevich, due to injuries. Before the morning skate, the Rangers announced Girardi was day-to-day with a strained groin and Buchnevich had back spasms. Klein has missed the first three games of the season with back spasms. ... San Jose scratched D Dylan DeMelo, and C Ryan Carpenter and C Micheal Haley. . Saturday Night Live actor Michael Che was among the announced 18,006 in attendance.UP NEXT:RANGERS: host Detroit in a nationally televised game Wednesday night.SHARKS: visit Brooklyn on Tuesday night for a game against the New York Islanders.Anthony Davis coronation as the Next Big Thing was over last season before the save-the-dates could be distributed. After a summer of MVP hype and heavy promotion by the NBA, most notably via booking the Brow for all three of its marquee regular-season slates, what was supposed to be The Year of AD began with the budding superstar starting next to Nate Robinson against the reigning champs and rolled, rather unmercifully, downhill from there. Davis potential at one point seemed limitless, but by the end of the New Orleans Pelicans slide from 45 to 30 wins, even his first big payday fell short of expectations.A year after Alvin Gentrys champagne-soaked entry, the hangover lingers. Davis received just two third-place votes in ESPNs early MVP projections for the 2016-17 season, and his Pelicans, after an offseason spent identity-shifting the supporting cast with a group of self-made grinders, are expected to finish three spots below the postseason cutoff.So while New Orleans deservedly celebrates its winning bid for the 2017 All-Star Game, its possible that Davis, who finished ninth last season in fan voting among Western Conference frontcourt players, may again need to sweat out a spot in the main event instead of automatically assuming the role of unofficial host.Or maybe everything is aligning for All-Star weekend to serve as some scaled-down version of that long-awaited coming-out party.A leap all the way back to the front of the line is unlikely. MVP recipients teams have won 61.5 games on average, meaning the Pelicans, who finished 30-52 last season, would have to double their win total in 2016-17. Which is possible, but not probable: A turnaround of 30 wins or more has happened just five times before and twice in the past decade-plus -- the 2004-05 Phoenix Suns and 2007-08 Boston Celtics, both of which were spurred by the addition of an MVP in free agency.The Pelicans have taken quite the opposite approach, swapping high-profile scorers for high-level role players to space the floor and finally plug a defense that has ranked among the leagues bottom third throughout the Davis era. While a far cry from the fever dream of adding Kevin Durant, the hope is that a few able bodies more befitting coach Alvin Gentrys preferences -- plus a prayer for improved health after last seasons prodigious body count -- will be enough to unleash the MVP-caliber player already in house.Thats whats so often lost in the discussion of Davis: The historic production at such a young age elicited alll sorts of wild fantasies for the future, but his reality already warranted Executive Platinum status.dddddddddddd While the Brow brand took off in earnest at some point during the 2014-15 season -- likely while suspended in air for that double-clutch, game-winning 3-pointer in Oklahoma City -- talk of Davis emerging as the leagues top player can be traced back as early as the start of his sophomore season. Even last season, his raw production was eerily similar to the season prior, when he finished fifth in MVP voting:The difference, of course, lies in the details: Davis played a career-low 61 games, shot a career-worst 49.3 percent and turned in the 16th-best defensive real plus-minus at his position as the Pelicans slunk to their lowest win total since Davis rookie season.The downshift in outlook, both for Davis and the Pelicans, has certainly been a disappointment; with the NFLs Saints mired last year in a repeat 7-9 season, fans and staffers quietly savored the opportunity to finally carve out their own place in the sports hierarchy. But this summers purge of Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon, the last vestige of a time before Davis, has at least provided the team with something of a clean slate. While team brass may fret over the repercussions of another season in the draft lottery, the unburdening of external expectations could possibly lead to a renewed appreciation of some of the feats -- the League Pass Alert performances, the athleticism and ferocity unleashed on lobs, the touch and skill of a guard from a gangly giant -- that helped push Davis to the precipice to begin with.If anything, the recalibrated roster could provide more of a platform than ever before. Amid the league-high 42 different starting lineups New Orleans trotted out last season, Davis and Jrue Holiday utilized more offensive possessions than at any point in their careers. With Anderson and Norris Cole out, Tyreke Evans on the outs, and ball-moving, tertiary options like Buddy Hield, Solomon Hill, ETwaun Moore and Langston Galloway in, the onus should be on, and thus a greater opportunity to rack up numbers will be present for Davis.Maybe he cant regain the overwhelming momentum for his MVP candidacy or even get back on the ticket next season, but there will be plenty of chances to remind everyone of why such outsized expectations were placed upon Davis in the first place. ' ' '