It’s looking like the Rangers have a road problem

OTTAWA, Ontario — This is a disconcerting trend, and the Rangers know it.

The Blueshirts put up another stinker on the road, losing to the Senators, 3-0, at Canadian Tire Center on Thursday night. This follows up their previous road game, a 4-0 thumping in Philadelphia on the day after Thanksgiving — and the Rangers themselves were the ones making the connection.

“It’s not just one game; it’s starting to become a road thing,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who was not at his sharpest in stopping 31-of-34 shots. “That’s something we need to adjust and correct real quick.”

The Rangers (13-11-2) are now 3-7-2 on the road, with a terrific 10-4-0 record at the Garden, where they beat the Senators (11-12-3) on Monday night. Yet it’s not just the losses, but how they’re happening.

The Blueshirts were completely outworked by the Senators, soft in their own zone and careless with the puck. But there was one fact coach David Quinn pointed to as an example of their weak effort.

“There really wasn’t a lot of good that happened. All you need to know is we never got a power play and I never felt there was a time when the refs should have called a penalty on them,” Quinn said. “To me, that speaks volumes for our lack of effort, our lack of physicality, and our lack of desire to get inside and get to the net.”

Quinn was forced to dress seven defensemen, with just 11 healthy forwards. He played Brendan Smith as a fourth-line winger for the opening 40 minutes, but then moved him back to defense when he decided to bench Kevin Shattenkirk for the entire third period.

“That’ll be between Kevin and I,” Quinn said, before being directly asked if the benching was a result of Shattenkirk’s play.

“That’ll be between Kevin and I,” Quinn repeated.

It was hardly as if Shattenkirk was the biggest culprit. As Quinn said, “I really can’t point to many people that had good nights.”

The lineup from top to bottom was brutal, with Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson cruising to 27 saves and his first shutout of the season.

“We need to do the little things real well for us to be in games, to win games, to create chances,” Lundqvist said. “Sometime you might not think that a little thing matters, but it makes such a big difference. They deserved to win.”

That run the Rangers went just before the holiday, a record of 9-1-1 that brought the season back to relevancy, seems like a very long time ago. Since then, the win over the Senators on Monday is the only victory in four games, and even that wasn’t exactly a gem.

“It snowballed and it got away from us, just like it did in Philly, and that can’t happen,” Chris Kreider said. “I think [the Senators] outplayed us at home, too. Maybe we fooled ourselves to think that we played better than we did.”

There was no fooling when Drake Batherson opened the scoring at 2:06 of the first, untouched in front as he flipped one over Lundqvist’s shoulder. Ottawa extended it to 2-0 at 14:35 when Magnus Paajarvi snuck a wrist shot under Lundqvist’s right arm — one the goalie surely would want back, but a play that started with a Mika Zibanejad turnover at the defensive blue line.

The Rangers never mustered any sustained pressure — or push-back at all — and Matt Duchene’s goal at 17:00 of the second period was all that was needed the rest of the way.

“There’s a reason they call them a greasy road win,” Kreider said. “We have to have a little more snarl in our game.”

Maybe that will be easier in the lively atmosphere in Montreal on Saturday night. But on this sleepy night in Canada’s capital, the Rangers were more sightseeing than they were seen.

“Sometimes it was on us more than them,” Lundqvist said. “It’s something we need to address and talk about, how we need to raise our level, especially on the road.”