NHL

Rangers have little hope if King falls subject to slump

BOSTON — It is difficult enough for the Rangers to win even when Henrik Lundqvist is at the top of his game. It is all but impossible for the Blueshirts to even come close when The King plays as if he’s a plebeian.

Which goes a long way in explaining yesterday, when it appeared as if the Bruins were shooting pucks made out of Kryptonite rather than vulcanized rubber at the Rangers’ Superman in the 5-2 Game 2 victory that sends the Blueshirts back to New York facing their second consecutive 2-0 series deficit.

“The game was about hunting down the puck, and it was tough,” said Lundqvist, who has yielded four long ones overall in consistently being forced to contend with traffic in front, including Johnny Boychuk’s 50-footer at 12:08 of the second that snapped a 2-2 tie. “It was definitely a tough game to play.

“I thought I was in position, but a couple of screens … giving up five goals you can’t be satisfied, obviously. I have to be better, and the guys in front of me have to step up as well.”

It wasn’t all on Lundqvist, of course, as he yielded as many as five goals for the first time in his past 35 playoff starts and the sixth time over his 64-start postseason career. There were coverage breakdowns aplenty. But if it feels as if the Bruins have pierced an impenetrable shield, it should.

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When Zdeno Chara beat Lundqvist for the first goal of the series at the 12:33 mark of the second period of Game 1, that ended The King’s shutout streak at 152:33. By the time Milan Lucic scored yesterday’s final goal at 12:39 of the third, Lundqvist had surrendered eight goals in 95:46.

“I don’t need to evaluate Henrik,” John Tortorella said. “We know what Henrik is.”

Lundqvist, who went to the ice after taking a shot to his shoulder late in the game, is the last line of defense on a team that has defended rather poorly against the Bruins. They’ve been unable to contain the Boston rush either in the neutral zone or in the Rangers’ end, where trailers have been eating up the time and space the Blueshirts have granted.

The Bruins were supposed to be a grinding team. Well, they’re that, too, but they are destroying the Rangers with their speed through the neutral zone and their playmaking ability when they cross the blue line.

Either the Rangers aren’t putting the puck where they need in the offensive zone or they’re not where they’re supposed to be in the defensive zone. Or both. The Blueshirts did have a 12-minute second-period stretch in which they were the better team and dictated the play off Rick Nash’s best performance of the playoffs, but they could neither sustain nor maintain that standard.

Dan Girardi had a nightmarish afternoon, on for all five Boston goals, the last four with Michael Del Zotto, with whom he was paired the first two games while Ryan McDonagh worked with Anton Stralman.

It was Girardi, the team’s best defender, who unaccountably did not tie up Brad Marchand in front when the Boston winger converted Patrice Bergeron’s right-wing rush feed — wait, wasn’t that the way Game 1 ended in OT? — at 0:26 of the third to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead.

“I have to be ready for that pass and take Marchand,” Girardi said. “That first shift [in the third period] put us behind the eight ball. It killed us.

“It’s tough for me to swallow.”

Ryan Callahan played like a man possessed after an unusually tepid Game 1. Nash emerged from his shell through an eye-popping series of shifts in the second. The Rangers created a number of outstanding chances with the score 2-2, but couldn’t beat Tuukka Rask to take the lead.

Indeed, the Rangers have led this series for all of 2:41 early in the third period of Game 1. They’re chasing the puck, they’re chasing the Bruins, and they’re not going to catch them unless The King regains his aura of invincibility.

larry.brooks@nypost.com