Rangers not looking at opening-night loss as a moral victory

The Rangers don’t want to be satisfied with moral victories in this season of rebuilding, and that includes hanging with one of the best teams in the league and eventually having their decent effort undercut by a bad non-call from a mostly negligent officiating staff.

So they did not walk away all smiles and consolation after the season-opening 3-2 loss to the Predators on Thursday night at the Garden. They did not harp on the missed high stick on Adam McQuaid early in the third period that immediately preceded P.K. Subban’s go-ahead goal.

And they did not overemphasize the fact that they, as a team, got better as the game went on, even if it was never quite good enough to hang with Nashville.

Instead, Chris Kreider brought with him a phrase from his days under Jerry York at Boston College — an apt bit of language on the night David Quinn, the former head coach at Boston University, made his debut behind the Blueshirts bench.

“Something we talked about at B.C. was playing a no-doubter, so even when the refs do get involved, it’s not up to the refs,” Kreider told The Post in his first game as a newly minted alternate captain, a contest in which he didn’t exactly have his best stuff. “It was a Jerry York-ism — 70-30, 80-20 game — leave no doubt. And if the refs get involved, even if you get some bad bounces, you’re doing everything you can to let yourself win, and you’re not beating yourself.”

Despite everything, the Rangers got two chances to tie it late in the third, earning their first power play of the night with just under six minutes remaining in regulation that went for naught. They were about to get another one with 1:30 remaining when Subban took an interference penalty in front, but during the delayed penalty, the Rangers had seven men on the ice that negated the man-advantage.

When Quinn pulled goalie Henrik Lundqvist — who was as sharp as he could be in making 30 saves — to give his team a five-on-four advantage, Colton Sission put one into the empty net to make it 3-1.

“It’s really hard to look at all the positive and all the things we did well when we don’t win,” Mika Zibanejad said. “We were looking forward to this game all summer and all training camp, and you don’t come out with a win, it sucks.”

The Rangers did get a tip-in goal from Pavel Buchnevich with 35 seconds remaining to make it 3-2, but by then, it was too little, too late.

Quinn, for one, wasn’t having any sense of accomplishment. Asked if that’s at least how he wants his team to play, he answered, “No.”

“I didn’t think we really played to the level that we’re looking for,” Quinn said. “We just have to be harder on the puck, we have to do a better job of playing in-your-face hockey. I thought we backed off too often and just gave them too much room.”

It was clear that the Rangers were hesitant at the beginning of the game, finally putting this new system into place under the pressure of the regular-season spotlight. There were no more half-lineups as in the preseason, and the talent that the Predators ran at them shift after shift proved to be too much.

Just like when Filip Forsberg was given a little bit a space to shoot the puck from the right circle, and he cleanly beat Lundqvist blocker-side to give Nashville a 1-0 lead at 3:54 of the second period. But the Rangers came back, with Filip Chytil flashing his terrific talent with a backhand pass from behind to set up Jesper Fast’s tying goal at 7:37 of the second.

But then came the non-call on McQuaid early in the third, and the blast from Subban that changed the game.

“It just is what it is,” McQuaid said. “It’s not going to change. You just refocus and keep playing. That’s all you can do. You can’t go back and change things.”

Just like the Rangers can’t go back and change the way this season started — with a bit of a dud that was far from a no-doubter.