Zuccarello, Namestnikov full participants in hard-nosed practice

It’s not the new bye week, or the Olympic break (remember those?), or even the All-Star break.

This is just a random quirk in the Rangers’ schedule that has them without a game for five straight days, from Sunday’s Vic Hadfield night at the Garden until Saturday’s match with the Panthers that starts a two-game Florida swing. And it came at a great time for the Blueshirts, who were reeling from major injuries that helped contribute to the recent 1-4-1 record.

So Thursday was another hour-plus, college-boy practice from first-year head coach David Quinn, with top-nine wingers Vlad Namestnikov and Mats Zuccarello participating fully. Namestnikov has missed three straight games since suffering a concussion at the end of the team’s 4-2 win over the Senators on Nov. 26, while Zuccarello has missed five straight and 11 of the past 13 with a right-groin strain.

“They’re right there,” Quinn said of the two wingers’ availability for this trip, which concludes Monday night in Tampa.

Pavel Buchnevich, who has been out since breaking his thumb on Nov. 10, also practiced but is “probably a week away,” Quinn said.

Defenseman Brendan Smith, who had a dreadful game Sunday against the Jets, was in a non-contact jersey, dealing with an “upper-body” injury he did not want to discuss. Quinn said that by Friday’s practice — another scheduled marathon before the flight to Florida — Smith should be a full participant. The likely scenario is that he will sit for Brady Skjei, who was in street clothes for Sunday’s 4-3 shootout loss.

“It would’ve been nice to play right away after that Winnipeg game, but it gives our injured guys a chance to get healthy again and not miss more games,” Quinn said. “It comes at a good time.”

The Rangers had Monday off, then a long practice on Tuesday before another day off on Wednesday. But there have been major issues in their collective game over this two-week stretch that Quinn wanted to address — and that included competitiveness. It just so happened this schedule was more conducive to doing that in practice.

“We’re always trying to get compete into practices. This is more an opportunity where you’re not worrying about, ‘Oh boy, we’re playing tomorrow, we’ve played three [games] in four [nights],’ ” Quinn said. “I wasn’t worried about the time we practiced. I wasn’t worried about how physical it was. I wasn’t worried about how competitive it was. We’ve had plenty of time off, so when we go, we go. Same will hold true [Friday]. We have plenty of time.”

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The Rangers still were smarting a bit from that loss to Winnipeg, in which they were completely outclassed — as were the other two New York-area teams by a terrific Jets sweep through the area. But the Blueshirts were held together and got a point via goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who also is trying to move on from that defeat and the downturn of the past fortnight.

“For me personally, the shootout, I wish I could have stopped a couple more shots and helped the team get a win. But you have to move on,” Lundqvist said. “There are a lot of games coming up. Now you’re just focused on having good practices, and the past is the past.”

The toll injuries have taken hasn’t been lost on any of the Rangers. But just as they are trying to avoid the idea that this rut is acceptable for a young team, they are trying not to look at the injuries as an excuse. Instead, they happened to get a nice week during which they could rest, get healthier, and get back to work.

“We talk about, ‘The way you practice is the way you play,’ ” Lundqvist said. “The way you pay attention to detail — there are a lot of things you have to do right in practice to have success in the games. It doesn’t change if you play every second day or you play once a week. That’s how you prepare yourself. So it’s been a good couple days.”