The Rangers’ special teams have not been special this season. But at the time of year in which wins and losses are most vital, it was those units that led the way.

The Rangers wake up Friday morning still in the eighth spot after the specialty units were strong in a 6-1 rout of the Panthers Thursday night at the Garden.

“The special teams played really well,” goaltender Henrik Lundqvist said.

Derick Brassard and Rick Nash gave the Rangers all the offense they would need in the first period as the duo scored two power-play goals in a six-minute span of first period. The Rangers finished 2-for-4 on the power play and penalty kill units eliminated Florida’s only man-advantage opportunity. The Rangers’ penalty killers are 21-for-23 in the last nine games

“You want to get your power play going. I think it’s a reason why we lose, because of our power play. It’s good. [We] made some good plays. To score quick power play goals to get started was important to us,” head coach John Tortorella said.

“The penalty killing has been good. In the last six or seven games [it] has give us a chance to stay in the game when our power play is not working that well.”

Nash finished with three points, and Brassard, Ryan Callahan, Brad Richards and Mats Zuccarello had two points. Eleven Rangers were plus-1 or better and ten players recorded at least one point. Lundqvist made 34 saves to win his 20th game of the season.

“I don’t give a crap who contributes,” Tortorella said. “It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t give a crap whether [it is new], old, veteran, rookie as long as we get contributions from everybody. That’s the only way we’re going to find a way. We have to keep on finding people to contribute.”

Even with the win, the Rangers remain as the No. 8 seed. They entered the game three points behind the seventh-seeded Islanders, who beat Toronto 5-3. The Rangers are in Buffalo, which they lead by four points, Friday night. Winnipeg, who beat Carolina 4-3 in overtime, trail the Rangers by two points.

But as they noted, the Rangers are in the enviable position of not needing help to reach the playoffs.

“It’s very important,” Richards said. “It’s all you can really ask for when you put yourself in [the] situation [that the Rangers are in]. The main thing you can ask for is that it’s in our hand. We can do what we need to do and it will be on us if something doesn’t happen. We plan on being in there and moving up. We just have to get in.”

Jonathan Huberdeau’s 14th goal of the season was Florida’s only score. Scott Clemmensen allowed all six goals on 30 shots.

“I felt that if we were going to give ourselves a chance to win this game from three goals back we had to push extremely hard. The game finished ugly and that’s the nature of it,” Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. “That’s what we are going to see every time against these guys. They’re Cookie Monsters that are certainly out there and hungry at the end of the game.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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No excuses was head coach Jack Capuano’s mindset heading into last night’s regular season home finale against last-place Florida.

“If it is, we’ve got problems,” Capuano said when asked if he was concerned if his team would view the match as a trap game.

Florida is 13-22-6 and engaged in a race with Colorado, Calgary and Carolina for the first overall pick in this June’s Entry Draft. The Islanders are 21-16-5 record, which his seventh-best in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders enter the match having won seven of their last 10 games, and have earned points in nine of their last 10 games.

“We’ve done a good job the last two or three weeks of enjoying a win when we win — or even a loss — and just refocusing and recommitting to do what we have to do,” Capuano said. “We played a solid game [Saturday] night [against the Rangers]. We didn’t get the result we wanted with two points but we got to come back tonight and play hard.”

With five games remaining this season — all on the road — the Islanders are clearly in the Eastern Conference playoff mix in a year in which not much was expected. Capuano pointed to maturity and character as key to the Islanders’ success.

“Focus and the commitment level. Try not to talk about having all the distractions with you guys and everybody talking about it. So just honestly go about our business,” Capuano said.

“From Day 1, I said we have high character, good leadership in this room. We’ve always had a positive room”

Isles happy to get away?

One of the themes spanning the last five seasons has been the decided lack of a home-ice advantage at the Nassau Coliseum.

Even though the Islanders will finish this year with a losing record at what was once termed Fort Neverlose — they are 9-11-3 at home during the 2013 season — the old barn on Hempstead Turnpike is beginning to evoke memories of a bygone era.

“Going into the Ranger game, it was a big rivalry. We had to, obviously, focus on just being another game but we knew what this building was going to be like. One of the best hockey games I’ve been around in a long time, especially 0-0 after 60 minutes,” Capuano said.

“[Tuesday night is the] last time they see us [in the regular season]. Hopefully they’ll see us again. They’ve been there for us. Hopefully they’ll be behind us again tonight against a good Florida team that’s playing [very] well right now. We need the help and they’re there for us.”

Makeup date

The NHL announced Tuesday afternoon that Monday night’s postponed Senators-Bruins game will be made up on April 28 at the TD Garden. The game was rescheduled due to the Boston Marathon bombing.

It will be the regular season finale. The season had previously been slated to end on April 27.

Follow NHL beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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In the past, the Islanders would have been pleased with what they accomplished Tuesday night. Now, they want more and are demanding more of themselves.

“We have to be better,” Matt Martin said after the Islanders took one step closer to reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2006-07 with a thoroughly dominant performance in the 5-2 rout of the Panthers at the Coliseum.

With the win over Florida, the Islanders improved to 22-16-5 and finished the home portion of the regular season with a 10-11-3 mark. The Islanders will play the final five games of the lockout-abbreviated season on the road, starting Thursday night in Toronto.

The Islanders were troubled that they allowed the NHL-worst Panthers to outshoot them 20-16 over the final 40 minutes and out-attempt them 52-23.

“Not too many guys were overly happy in here when we came in [at] the second intermission and even after the game,” Martin said. “We understand that we have to be way better to make any run in the playoffs. It’s not going to be good enough. We’re not going to beat some of the better teams in the league in a seven-game series if we play like that.”

For all intents and purposes the game was decided by the first intermission as the Islanders went into the break with a 3-1 lead. Matt Moulson opened the scoring 8:11 into the match with 14th goal of the season. Moulson tipped Martin’s redirection of Thomas Hickey’s centering feed past Jacob Markstrom (13 saves).

Mark Streit and Michael Grabner scored back-to-back goals on the same power play in a two-minute span to push the advantage to 3-0. With Tyson Strachan (two-minute minor for cross-checking) and Eric Gudbranson (four-minute minor for high-sticking) in the box, Streit ripped a right-circle slapshot past Markstrom at 13:59 and Grabner followed with a breakaway goal at 16:47.

The Islanders went two-for-three on the power play and killed four of Florida’s five power plays.

“We started extremely strong,” Moulson said. “Obviously got some big power play goals [from] Mark and Grabby. If it wasn’t for that first period that we had, we probably would have lost the game.”

Eleven Islanders finished with at least one point, led by Streit and Grabner who finished with two points each. Nine Islanders were plus-1 or better, with Hickey, Martin and Lubomir Visnovsky recording a plus-2 rating. Grabner scored two goals. Streit, Moulson and Radek Martinek added one each.

“It’s always nice when you can score some goals and help out the team,” Grabner said.

His 15 goals are second on the Islanders behind John Tavares’s 24.

“When I get the puck I’m not really trying to think too much,” Grabner said. “[I] just try to get a quick, hard shot off. Two, three weeks ago I was thinking about it too much. Now it’s a little bit easier.”

Martinek and Grabner pushed the lead to 5-1 with goals in a 14-second span of the second period. Following Grabner’s second goal, Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen replaced him with Scott Clemmensen. Clemmensen stopped all 13 shots he faced in 36:20 of the second and third periods.

The four-goal cushion was more than enough for Evgeni Nabokov, who made 26 saves on 28 shots. His lone mistakes were yielding markers to Dmitry Kulikov (18:12 of the first period) and Marcel Goc (7:44 of the second period).

Nabokov experienced a scare midway through the second period when he was steamrolled by Panthers left wing Scottie Upshall, who was tied up by Visnovsky. Nabokov stayed down on the ice for a minute and spoke with a trainer but remained in the game.

“When you get hit in the neck you’re like, ‘What’s happening?’” Nabokov said. “You feel some pain. I knew I was fine. It was just a matter of [taking] a breather, take an extra minute and make sure.”

Follow NHL beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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Lacking an identity after 30 games in an 82-game season is cause for concern. Lacking an identity after 30 games in a 48-game season is cause for exhaustive self-introspection.

The Rangers’ 3-1 loss to the Panthers on Thursday night at the Garden was endemic of their 2013 campaign.

“We did a lot of good things but it’s getting old,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “[Other] teams, they find ways to win. That’s what we’re lacking.”

The loss, coupled with the Devils’ 4-1 win over the Hurricanes, dropped the Rangers to ninth in the East. The Rangers have 18 games remaining this season.

There were periodic flashes of the skill and talent that led many to view the team a Stanley Cup contender, but the tenacity that marked the 2010-11 and 2011-12 editions was not readily apparent.

“Confused and lost,” said Brad Richards when asked to describe his feelings following the loss.

To make last night’s loss even more damning, the Rangers were facing the league’s worst team with rookie goaltender Jacob Markstrom making just his 17th career start.

Markstrom’s lone mistake was yielding Marian Gaborik’s ninth goal of the season with 3:48 left in regulation. Gaborik held off two Panthers as he barreled towards Markstrom before flipping a shot over the blocker and into the cage for his first goal since March 7 against the Islanders.

“We had a lot of chances and a lot of shots on net. We just have to put a few more in there. We were the better team but we just didn’t execute,” Gaborik said. “We have to stick with it.

Coming off consecutive wins over Carolina and New Jersey, in which they routinely generated offensive chances, the Rangers were mostly unable to sustain time in the offensive zone despite outshooting the Panthers, 45-24.

“We’d be concerned if we weren’t getting the chances,” Ryan Callahan said. “We had [45] shots on net. You do that on a nightly basis, you get those chances on a nightly basis, you’re going to get more than one goal easily.”

But only if the Rangers begin to press the issue right from the start of games. The Rangers fell into Florida’s trap. They clogged the neutral zone and the middle of the ice, forcing the Rangers into playing an overly cautious game.

“Just can’t find a way to get that first [goal] early [that] kind of gives us momentum,” Dan Girardi said. “The start, again, kind of hurt us.

“Every other team seems to come out really hard and put us on our heels. We just need to find a way — first shift, second shift — just throw everything we have at them from the first couple shifts and create some momentum that way. [Maybe] we’ll get one right away, get the first goal. Just got to change something, figure something out.”

Brian Campbell’s power-play goal 8:21 into the first period opened the scoring. Scottie Upshaw’s even-strength goal 4:28 into the second period was the game-winner. Tomas Kopecky’s short-handed, empty-net goal with 44 seconds sealed the win.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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Chris Kreider is back with the Rangers.

Whether he stays is up to him.

“[The staff in Connecticut] think he’s progressing,” head coach John Tortorella said in his pregame press conference Thursday afternoon. Kreider was called up from AHL Connecticut Wednesday afternoon following an eight-game stretch in which he scored six goals.

He skated on the third line with J.T. Miller and Brian Boyle against the Panthers.

Tortorella has routinely preached patience with Kreider. The coach’s concern is that the winger’s development is not impeded.

“If there’s one thing I gave him when he was up here last was I just needed him to move his legs more to get to pucks. He did that. The next step is sustaining — having the puck and making an offensive play. He won’t have to worry about defense that much if he can use his assets,” Tortorella said. “Bring some pucks to the net, who knows what happens? Use his shot. So I think he progressed in a couple things I asked him to do. The next [step] is sustaining.

“He starts sustaining down there, started creating a little more offense. I’m real anxious to see him play. This is the right type of process he needs to go through. I hope he takes a step in the right direction and keeps on growing.”

Four score

To bolster offensive production on the fourth line, the coaching staff put Taylor Pyatt, Jeff Halpern and Darroll Powe together.

“We need more out of it. I think we need more out of Taylor,” Tortorella said. Pyatt has not recorded a point since Feb. 26. He has four goals and six points in 29 games this season.

“I haven’t used him a lot other than a lot of penalty killing,” Tortorella said. “I thought [Pyatt] played really well in the third period [against the Devils] when we’re protecting a lead. I thought that was his best 20 minutes in the last little while.

“We just need some grind out of them, like to see them chip in a goal. Just trying to get us into a more consistent mode as far as offensive zone time.”

Panthers struggling

The 2013 season has not been kind to the Panthers. The reigning Southeast Division champions entered last night’s game with an NHL-worst 8-16-6 record, and were without center Stephen Weiss, right wing Kris Versteeg, left wing Eric Selleck and goaltender Jose Theodore.

Weiss and Versteeg underwent season-ending wrist and knee surgery, respectively, while Selleck was serving a league-mandated one-game suspension for leaving the bench and starting a fight with 3:02 left in the Panthers’ 4-1 win Tuesday night. Theodore suffered a torn groin in Florida’s 3-2 loss to Carolina on March 3, and he is not expected to return until the end of the season.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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