OTTAWA, Ontario — The look on Mika Zibanejad’s face said it all — in a good way.

Did that really just happen?

The look came after the second of Zibanejad’s three goals Saturday night, after he finished a ridiculous passing play from his dazzling top line on a night when the Rangers’ de facto captain stole the show against his former team in a 4-1 win over the lowly Senators.

It was Zibanejad’s third career hat trick and his second straight four-point game to start this season. With the power play getting two more goals — another in as many games for Zibanejad’s money winger, Artemi Panarin — the Blueshirts (2-0-0) have started off better than most could have imagined. With Pavel Buchnevich notching three assists, it almost seemed unfair when the three were on the ice against a Senators (0-2-0) team considered to be the worst in the league.

“In general, I think it’s working out pretty good so far,” Zibanejad said, vying for understatement of the year.

The signature play started with a cross-ice pass from Panarin to Zibanejad, who then found Buchnevich alone at the far post. It was an easy tap-in, but Buchnevich sent it back to Zibanejad for a slam dunk.

“Gross,” is how Zibanejad happily described what he was thinking after it slid under goalie Craig Anderson. “That only happens with those two. Panarin, that first pass, then trying to get it over to Buchie — that’s one of the few guys I know that’s going to be able to pass that back and not shoot it. I thought I gave him a pretty good pass for an empty-netter, but apparently he didn’t want it. I’m happy I was ready for it.”

It was also rather impressive how the Rangers tightened things up defensively from their 6-4 win over the Jets on opening night at the Garden Thursday. Panarin, for one, made a handful of terrific defensive plays, earning his $81.5 million contract not just with highlight-reel one-timers, but back-checking with a vengeance.

Panarin signing with the Rangers as a free agent in July might also have pushed Zibanejad to another level, put into perspective against the team that traded him at age 23 (along with a second-round pick) for a 28-year-old Derick Brassard (and a seventh-round pick) in the summer of 2016.

“He knows how I feel about him,” Rangers coach David Quinn said of Zibanejad. “I told everybody what a great player he is. He’s gotten to the level I know he’s capable of getting to. I couldn’t be happier for him, because there’s not a better guy. He’s put an awful lot of work into it, and I’m not surprised he’s getting the results he getting.”

The results for the Rangers might not continue to be quite this easy, and they know it. They still made plenty of mistakes, a lot of them covered up with a terrific performance from goalie Alex Georgiev (31 saves) in his season debut.

But Quinn adjusting the defensive pairs certainly got them out of their zone a lot better, and they killed off all five penalties with some dogged work up front. Georgiev was beat only when a Thomas Chabot shot deflected off the leg of perpetual pest Brady Tkachuk at 12:14 of the first period, then tying it, 1-1.

After Zibanejad opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 6:04 of the first, he added that jaw-dropper at 9:53 of the second at even-strength and finished off his second hat trick as a Ranger with a shorthanded tally at 12:07 of the second to make it 3-1. He became the first Ranger to record a hat trick with goals at even strength, power play and shorthanded since Derek Stepan on Dec. 27, 2013, and the first to do it on the road since Petr Nedved on Jan. 24, 2000.

“We need to continue to judge ourselves against ourselves,” Quinn said, “and what are capabilities are.”

The questions remain about the capabilities of the team, but the ceiling for Zibanejad and the top line seems to have risen.