Mats Zuccarello’s likely Rangers goodbye is not starting well

The likely last leg of Mats Zuccarello’s stint on Broadway is getting off on the wrong foot.

For when the Blueshirts resume their schedule Tuesday night when the Flyers come to the Garden, the popular winger will be sidelined with a left foot infection that manifested itself during the combined bye/All-Star break that began after the club’s 3-2 victory in Boston on Jan. 19.

Zuccarello, a pending free agent expected to be traded by the Feb. 25 deadline, is receiving antibiotics to treat the infection and may be available for Thursday night’s contest in New Jersey. The Norwegian, who has not skated since that victory over the Bruins, entered the break on a five-game scoring streak in which he recorded nine (4 goals, 5 assists) points.

The alternate captain has 24 points (8-16) in 35 games, having missed 13 bridging November and December with groin issues.

Coach David Quinn is moving Vladislav Namestnikov into Zuccarello’s spot on the first line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider while shifting natural center Brett Howden to right wing on the unit with Kevin Hayes and Jimmy Vesey. Pavel Buchnevich thus remains as the fourth-line right wing while Jesper Fast skates on the intact second unit with Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil.

The 20-year-old Howden is one of only eight players — the others being Marc Staal, Kevin Hayes, Zuccarello, Kreider, Zibanejad, Fast and Strome — to not suffer a healthy scratch thus far. But the rookie hasn’t scored a goal since his Nov. 12 third-period winner against the Canucks, going 0-5 in 30 games since (0-1 over the last 15), while losing even-strength and penalty-kill time to Boo Nieves. Howden was dropped to fourth-line center the past four games, getting under 10:00 in each one.

“I thought he needed this break,” Quinn said of Howden. “He’s played center the whole time [has missed only one game, Nov. 6], we’ve been asking him to do an awful lot and that’s an awful lot to put on the lap of a 20-year-old. He’s handled it well, but you’re going to have some peaks and valleys in your first NHL season, especially when you play as many minutes as he has, so we felt the time off was best used by mentally and physically taking a rest.

“I want to see what he looks like on the wing, and get him a little relief from playing down low defensively [as a center] and get him going a little bit.”

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Quinn said he had not yet determined whether Neal Pionk will rejoin the lineup. If he does, he likely would play on the right with Kevin Shattenkirk on the left while the Staal-Tony DeAngelo and Brady Skjei-Adam McQuaid pairs remained intact and Brendan Smith sits as the healthy scratch.

The right-handed Shattenkirk played the left for a stretch with DeAngelo in Las Vegas on Jan. 8. He also remembered playing the left in St. Louis with Colton Parayko for a stretch, with a check of Naturalstattrick revealing that the two skated together for 330:52 over No. 22’s last three seasons with the Blues.

Alexandar Georgiev will start in nets, thus permitting for another heavy practice for Henrik Lundqvist, whose history upon returning from extended breaks is not a particularly sterling one.

If, as appears likely, Smith does sit, it would mark the 18th time this season. That would put Smith one up on DeAngelo for the dubious distinction of the most healthy scratches under Quinn. Cody McLeod leads the forwards with six, but hasn’t been scratched since Game 16, Nov. 9 at Detroit.