SAN JOSE, Calif. — This was damning in so many ways, and when team president Glen Sather walked into the Rangers locker room, he didn’t need to tell them — though he almost surely did, in no uncertain terms.

Because as Sather said while walking to the room, the 4-1 loss to the Sharks on Saturday afternoon at SAP Center was “embarrassing.” His players didn’t need to share the message of their boss. It was clear in their own harsh self-criticism.

“I think if we have any realization or desire to do what we want to do, that type of game at this time of year is garbage,” alternate captain Marc Staal said. “We have to be better.”

It is hard to think of any time this year the Rangers (40-24-8) have been any worse. Really, one might have to go back to another game in this building from the start of two seasons ago, when a 9-2 loss also featured goalie Henrik Lundqvist storming off to the locker room before the game was over, having been pulled after the team in front of him was horrid in all ways imaginable.

Lundqvist lasted just 49:05 in this one, terrific through most of his 43 saves on 47 shots, as the Sharks (40-25-6) ended up outshooting the Blueshirts 52-26 and out-attempting them 81-56, with Antti Raanta getting mop-up duty at the end.

“It seemed like guys weren’t willing to compete hard, and that’s a very hard thing to say, but you have to admit it sometimes,” captain Ryan McDonagh said. “Our group simply gave away two points. It’s very uncharacteristic.

“The way Hank was playing, that’s very disappointing — we left him out to dry.”

It all went down in a matter of 3:20 in the third period, when the Sharks scored three goals that came rolling in like an expectant storm. The period actually began in a 1-1 tie, and 19 seconds in, Staal flipped the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty.

“That was just a symbol of our defense moving the puck,” coach Alain Vigneault said.

So first was Tomas Hertl going around Dan Girardi like he was standing still. Lundqvist stopped Hertl’s initial attempt, but Joe Thornton finished it easily into the open net for a 2-1 lead at 5:45 of the third. Then it was Joel Ward getting his second of the game after Kevin Hayes had turned it over at his offensive blue line and hardly considered getting back. By the time Joe Pavelski finished another odd-man rush off the leg of a sprawled-out Lundqvist at 9:05, the lead was 4-1 and in came Raanta.

“It was 4-1, and [Lundqvist] was by himself,” Vigneault said. “It had been enough.”

Lundqvist now is 0-3-2 in his past five starts, having most recently notched a win Feb. 27 in Dallas. Following his week-long absence due to neck spasms, he has lost four straight, and it’s starting to get to him.

“For two periods, I felt as good as I felt in a long time,” Lundqvist said. “Even the last couple games, I tried to make that extra save, but it just hasn’t been enough. Together, we need to figure it out. I need to make more saves, if that’s the only way.”

Hot on the Rangers’ heels for second place in the Metropolitan Division are the Islanders and Penguins, and a lock on a playoff spot is starting to seem tenuous. This 1-1-1 trip through California had its ups and downs, and it certainly is significant that it all went down in just under four days time.

Lundqvist now has been pulled six times this season after being pulled six times in the previous three years combined. The Rangers are not the same team that has made three of the past four conference finals, and these absolute stinkers are more than troubling.

“We have to look at what our next job is, and that’s home to MSG,” McDonagh said of Monday’s contest against the Panthers. “Compete hard for one another and look each other in the eyes and know that we gave it [all] for one another — after that game.”