NHL

NO WAY, JOSE: RANGERS CAN’T COUNT ON EASY GOALS

WASHINGTON — Here’s the critical point the Rangers need to take out of Wednesday’s 4-3 Game 1 victory over the Caps and bring into Game 2 this afternoon: If they play the same game again, they will almost certainly lose.

THEODORE LIKELY TO START FOR CAPITALS

The Rangers will have to better today, much better, because it’s all but impossible for Washington’s Jose Theodore to be worse. Seriously, how many times does a goaltender get beaten four times in a game on unscreened shots 15 feet out and deeper?

The question is meant to be rhetorical but the answer is, it will not happen again to Theodore, certainly not in this series, because if another one or two get by him, he will be pulled as quickly as Washington coach Bruce Boudreau say can, “Simeon Varlamov.”

It isn’t that the Rangers lucked their way to Game 1 victory. They earned it. They played with poise. They battled. They scored on the power play. And they received superior goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist, who did exactly what he must do in order for his team to survive.

But the Rangers will have to do more to bring a 2-0 edge into the Garden on Monday. Specifically, they will have to play more in the offensive end of the ice. The Blueshirts did not possess the puck nearly often enough in Game 1, and in fact, barely played in the Washington zone. Their cycle game did not exist.

They had just 21 shots on goal, after all.

“We’ve got to get the puck in,” Tortorella said yesterday when asked how the Rangers could generate down-low pressure against the Caps. “We talked about it a lot before the series, and now it’s something we have to be better at, and it starts with not being stubborn in the neutral zone.

“Our decision making was not where it should have been in the neutral zone. We need to be sharper on getting the puck in. I thought we tried to force it instead of taking what was given. We don’t want to be chasing the puck all day.”

Chris Drury took line rushes with wingers Markus Naslund and Ryan Callahan, but did not participate in faceoff drills at the end of yesterday’s 50-minute session. The captain, who is believed suffering from a hand or wrist injury that kept him out of Game 1 (and the season finale), said he is unsure about his status.

“It feels better than [Thursday] and hopefully it will be better [today],” said Drury. “We’ll see. I’m hoping.”

larry.brooks@nypost.com