Head coach John Tortorella was resigned to the fact Chris Kreider was the best solution to a bad situation.

“The thing we settled on was [Kreider’s] speed,” Tortorella said in his pregame press conference before last night’s match against the Panthers. “We want to try to play with more pace so that’s who we go with.”

Kreider was called up for the fourth time this season Wednesday in response to Brian Boyle’s injury in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Flyers. Tortorella said Boyle “won’t be in” the next two games — Friday in Buffalo and Sunday afternoon against the Devils.

Tortorella had Kreider on a fourth line with Darroll Powe and Arron Asham. When asked by Metro New York if he envisioned Kreider skating on Brad Richards’ line — Richards centered Mats Zuccarello and Ryane Clowe — Tortorella said, “I’m not going to go over my lines with you.”

Kreider has three points (two goals and an assist) in 17 games with the Rangers. He recorded 23 points (12 goals and 11 assists) in 48 games with the Whale. However, Tortorella has routinely espoused his concern Kreider’s development not be stymied by the Rangers’ need for depth and offense.

“He’s played some games [with the Rangers this season],” Tortorella said of Kreider. “There [are] a number of players we talked about. I’m still not crazy about bringing a kid here.

“His asset is his speed, especially. That’s what we go with.”

Fighting for No. 8

The facts are what they are.

The Rangers are holding on to the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference with six games remaining in the abbreviated season. For a group who entered the season believing itself a Stanley Cup contender, the season has been tinged with frustration and confusion.

But Tortorella does not sense panic with his group.

“We’re fine, we’re fine,” Tortorella said when asked how the coaching staff minimizes pressure on the players. “Go about your business. Believe in the team, which I do. Just go about our business.”

Rangers notes …

» The organization announced Thursday morning it agreed to terms with free agent forward Michael Kantor. Kantor, 21, played last season for the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves where he recorded 20 goals and 33 points in 56 games. He added four points and 12 penalty minutes in nine playoff games.

» Ryan Callahan won the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award. It marked the fourth time in his career that Callahan won the prestigious award named for a New York City police officer who was wounded in duty in 1988.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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Thirty-five games spanning two-and-a-half months have shown that the 2013 New York Rangers are flawed.

But flawed teams can qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We’ve underachieved so far this year,” Ryan Callahan said after the Rangers’ 4-2 win over the Jets Monday night at the Garden. The win guarantees that the Rangers will wake up today as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, despite the Islanders’ 3-1 win over the Devils at the Prudential Center.

The Rangers and Islanders each have 37 points. Both trail the seventh-seeded Devils by two points. The Rangers have one fewer regulation loss than the Islanders.

The Rangers have a game in hand on both the Islanders and Devils. The Islanders and Devils have 12 games remaining this season. The Rangers have 13 left.

“We just have to make it and that’s the attitude we have right now,” Callahan said. “We got to get into the playoffs and it’s a new season. You saw it last year.”

In what was the most important game of the season up to this point, the Rangers ended a two-game losing streak in which they were unable to register a single goal.

Prior to the game, head coach John Tortorella reshuffled the forward lines and defensive pairs. It paid off, as the top line of Callahan, Derek Stepan and Rick Nash combined for eight points.

Callahan finished with four points (a goal and three assists). Rick Nash scored a goal and added an assist. Derek Stepan, who has been the Rangers’ best player this season, scored two goals.

“Cally had a heck of a game. That makes the chemistry certainly work itself out and Rick has been a special player since he’s been here,” Stepan said.

Stepan opened the scoring 19 seconds into the game with his 11th goal of the season, and his second goal of the game was the game-winner.

Stepan’s first, a snapshot that beat Ondrej Pavelec (31 saves) five-hole, ended the Rangers’ shutout streak at 128:06.

“Getting that goal right away, Step’s goal, [was] a pretty good confidence booster,” Dan Girardi said. “We finally get a goal. We know we can put it in the net.”

But for all of the positive feelings Stepan’s goal created, the Rangers trailed 2-1 early in the second and were down two men after Mats Zuccarello (high-sticking) and Girardi (tripping) took two-minute minors 1:21 apart.

But as his penalty expired, Zuccarello came out of the box and made a backhand touch pass to an oncoming Callahan. The two forwards came in on a two-on-one against Tobias Enstrom. The Winnipeg defenseman sprawled to the ice to take away the pass, but Callahan held onto the puck and cut toward the middle of the ice before tucking the puck past Pavelec.

“We get some fortunate bounces,” Tortorella said. “It certainly sparked us. As far as Ryan Callahan, it’s a huge play in the game. Not only killing the penalties but [the] wherewithal to kill and keep the puck and score a big goal like that. I thought we took off from there. I thought we took over the game from there.”

And, he hopes, maybe found some of the qualities that marked the 2011-12 team.

“I think they have confidence,” Tortorella said. “It’s just when something doesn’t go right for them in the game, we lost a little bit of that quick resiliency. Maybe tonight we find a way to come back; maybe this was a good lesson for us. They have to grab something to keep themselves aware that we’re not dead yet here because [an opponent] scored.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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The Rangers and Flyers were deadlocked early in the third period in latest commencement of hostility between the Atlantic Division rivals.

The scene demanded a leading man. Enter Rick Nash.

“There’s no question when you make a deal like that, you add to your top players and you add to your skill level. It’s just a really good deal for us,” head coach John Tortorella said after Nash’s two third-period goals were the difference in the Rangers’ 4-2 win over the Flyers Tuesday night at the Garden.

“You get big plays like that in the third period [and] you win a hockey game.”

Ryan Callahan scored two goals in the first period and Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves. The Rangers have won three in a row and passed the Flyers for eighth place in the conference. The Rangers have 27 games remaining in this abbreviated season.

“[These] are huge games,” Dan Girardi said. “It’s time to string some wins together. If we keep winning we’ll just keep climbing in the standings, and we have [games in hand] on a couple teams. It’s a busy month, but we have to make sure we’re real sharp in our game.”

Callahan and Nash are now tied with Marian Gaborik and Carl Hagelin for the team lead in goals with seven each. All of Nash’s goals have come in the third period of games.

Last night was no exception, as Nash’s game-winning goal 2:50 into the third broke a 2-2 tie. The play began with Lundqvist making a pad save on a Luke Schenn wrist shot. Girardi cleared the puck to Nash, who carried the puck into the Eighth Avenue end of the ice before wristing a shot past Ilya Bryzgalov (16 saves). The goal was Nash’s third in as many games.

His second goal of the game, nearly nine minutes later, gave the Rangers a two-goal advantage they would not relinquish.

“It would be nice to get them early but when they aren’t coming in bunches, you will take them any way you can get them,” Nash said, “not worry when they come.”

The specialty teams were both a boon and a curse last night. The Rangers went 1-for-4 on the man advantage to bolster a group that had been 6-for-27 in the eight games prior to last night. Callahan’s first goal of the game opened the scoring 1:30 in. His second goal, with 40.2 seconds left in the period, tied the game at 2-2.

On the down side, the penalty kill units surrendered two goals on three power plays. Both goals occurred in the first period, as Wayne Simmonds tied the game at 1-1, 7:18 into the match, and Jakub Voracek’s 10th goal of the season gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead at 17:07.

Entering the game, the Rangers had killed 32-of-34 power plays in the previous 11 matches.

“Their power play was hot,” Lundqvist said. “They were picking us apart in the first period.”

The win was not without cost as the Rangers lost Marc Staal midway through the third period after he was struck on the right eye with the puck. Staal went down immediately and clutched at his face as blood pooled on the ice.

Tortorella did not have an update on Staal’s condition after the game. To a man, the Rangers used the word “scary” to describe the injury to Staal.

The game became chippy in the final minutes. Following a check into the Rangers bench, Flyers left wing Scott Hartnell punched Micheal Haley to set off a melee . After the fracas, Hartnell and Stu Bickel each received 10-minute misconduct penalties.

“He just came into the bench and he didn’t like it, I guess,” Haley said. “It was pretty quick. Maybe he doesn’t like me.

“Things happen pretty quick.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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Rick Nash skated today. When he next plays is yet to be determined.

Nash has missed the Rangers last three games — all losses — as he recuperated from an undisclosed injury leading to speculation that the left wing is suffering from either a concussion or a groin injury.

Despite missing the last three games, Nash still leads the Rangers with 12 points. His nine assists are tied with Brad Richards for the team lead, and his three goals are tied for fourth most with Derek Stepan and Taylor Pyatt.

The Rangers have not publicly announced what is ailing Nash, and head coach John Tortorella has stated he will not discuss injuries this season.

Following the early skate at the Rangers’ training facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., Nash told reporters he is “feeling good” but wasn’t sure if he would play against the Jets. The team announced two hours before the game that Nash, along with Arron Asham, Michael Del Zotto and Ryan McDonagh were ruled out.

“It’s a positive day for sure when you get back out and skate with the guys,” Nash said. “Obviously, I’ll talk to the trainers. But it was a good day to get a good skate in. I’ve been banged up quite a bit and obviously I just didn’t feel I could compete out there. After last week and today it’s definitely in the right direction and it’s a big positive.”

Building consistency

Coaches in every sport preach the importance of consistency.

That steadiness grows in consequence in an abbreviated season, especially for a team dealing with the weight of Stanley Cup expectations while being shorthanded due to injuries.

Enter the Rangers forward corps.

Tortorella believes the play of the forwards has been uneven through the first 17 games of the season.

“I don’t think they’re all there. I think if we can get just a little more consistency out of them minute-to-minute, I think it’s going to help,” Tortorella said before the game. “I think a lot of people will get out of a little bit of a funk.”

One such forward is Ryan Callahan. The Captain has five points (four goals and an assist) and a minus-4 rating in 14 games.

“He’s banged in a few power play goals. I think he has all of ours, doesn’t he?” Tortorella asked when asked by Metro New York for his thoughts on Callahan’s play.

Callahan has three of the Rangers’ seven power play goals this season. Carl Hagelin, Derek Stepan, J.T. Miller and Taylor Pyatt are tied for second with one power play goal apiece.

The coach then added, “I don’t think his game is totally there.”

“You group our forwards in and he’s one of our top forwards,” Tortorella said. “We all know what Cally does. He does all the other things. Offensively I don’t think he’s completely [found] his game.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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The youngest Ranger was the leading man on the night The Rivalry was renewed on center stage, as J.T. Miller scored his first two NHL goals in the Rangers’ 4-1 win over the Islanders Thursday night at the Garden.

With the win, the Rangers improved to 5-5-0 this season, and hold a 117-99-19-6 advantage all-time over the Islanders.

“I’m just trying to stay on an even keel here. Obviously it was nice for me but even better go get the win on home ice and a big bounce back from the last game. We just have to keep looking forward,” Miller said while wearing the Broadway Hat, given by the team to the game’s best player. He noted that his mother, grandmother and girlfriend were in attendance.

“It’s nice to get it out of the way,” Miller said of scoring his first goals at the Garden. “I was just trying to look past [the first goal] because we had a lot of game left so [I] just tried to keep plugging along.”

Ryan McDonagh and Marian Gaborik added goals. Gaborik’s was his first since Jan. 26, even though he is tied for fourth in the league in that category. Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves. His lone mistake was yielding John Tavares’s fifth goal of the season.

“It’s been a bumpy start for us but we’re working really hard right to try and correct everything,” Lundqvist said. “I thought tonight we did a lot of good things. Tonight we got a good start.”

One-third of a newly formed second line with Chris Kreider and the returning Ryan Callahan, Miller opened the scoring 89 seconds into the match. Miller corralled a Mark Streit turnover at the Islanders’ blueline and sped past Brain Strait before roofing a shot over Evgeni Nabokov (21 saves).

“It’s so important for the organization to keep filling in with kids,” Rangers head coach John Tortorella said. “Cap world, youth, enthusiasm. [Carl] Hagelin comes up here and changes our team last year.

“[Miller and Kreider] have contributed in the first couple games. Hags brought speed. They’re two different type [of] players. I think Miller — he’s what, 19? — he has a lot of puck poise for such a young kid. He’s a bigger body. He’s a different type player.”

Gaborik increased the lead to 2-0 when he stuffed a rebound of a Marc Staal shot past Nabokov.

Tavares cut the lead in half at 11:13 of the second but Miller made sure the Islanders would come no closer with his second of the game on a semi-breakaway seven minutes later. McDonagh, who finished with two points in 24:42 of ice time, sprung Miller with a gorgeous headman pass. A deke opened a hole between Nabokov’s legs that Miller snapped a shot through to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.

“I was trying to go right over his blocker,” Miller said. “I think it went through his arm; it’s nice for it to go in.”

The Islanders have lost three in a row. One of the culprits in the slide has been a suddenly impotent power play. The Islanders were 0-for-5 on the man advantage last night and are 0-for-19 in the last three games. Adding to the collapse of the Islanders’ specialty teams units was the fact that Miller’s second goal came on the power play.

“Some guys played tentative and some guys didn’t take hits to make plays. You’re not going to win like that,” Islanders head coach Jack Capuano said. “I told them after the game that I was disappointed with some guys and their battle level.

Our power play couldn’t get it going when it was a one-goal game. Special teams are still a factor.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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