It sounds like if the Rangers have their druthers, the next time Wojtek Wolski and Erik Christensen get into a game will be this weekend as members of the AHL Whale.
Coach John Tortorella said last night that asking the veterans to accept a temporary conditioning assignment to Connecticut, “is being discussed.”
“One of the good things about having your farm team down the street is that you can send guys there to get playing time,” Tortorella said before the Rangers extended their winning streak to five with a 2-1 shootout triumph over the Coyotes at the Garden. “You know that [regulars] are going to get bumps [as the season continues].
“Erik and [Wolski] haven’t played. It would be good for them to get game time.”
Wolski, who has not played since Nov. 3, has been listed as a healthy scratch for the last three games following a lengthy stay on Injured Reserve in the aftermath of Nov. 8 surgery to repair a sports hernia. The 24-year-old winger, who has been burdened by lower-body issues since camp, has two points (0-2) in six games.
Christensen, who has not played since Dec. 17, has been a healthy scratch for 10 straight games and 18 of the Rangers’ 22 matches since Nov. 23. The center, who played in four straight from Dec. 11-17, has five points (1-4) in 20 games overall while averaging 8:07 per.
NHL players must give their consent to conditioning assignments that can last up to 14 days. It’s no sure thing Wolski, who is on the final year of a contact under which he carries an annual $3.8 million cap hit, would agree, though Tortorella made it sound as though he has no immediate plan to get him into a game.
“I’m not going to force it,” the coach said when asked specifically about Wolski. “I’m not saying I have to get him in.”
Wolski, who will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, could refuse and instead ask the Rangers to place him on waivers. It’s not known how general manager Glen Sather would respond to such a request.
The Rangers are home tomorrow to the Senators before going on the road for matches in Toronto on Saturday and Montreal on Sunday.
The Whale have a pair of games in Norfolk on Friday and Saturday prior to a game in Portland (Maine) a week from tonight.
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Jeff Woywitka, who was limping after Monday’s practice and did not participate in the optional morning skate that is never optional for healthy scratches, sat out his fourth straight game. Woywitka has played in just two of 10 games since sustaining what was at least a badly bruised left foot blocking a shot in Phoenix on Dec. 17.
Marc Staal played 18:16 (including an overtime shift of 1:14), representing the most amount of time he has gotten in four games. The alternate captain’s time has increased match-by-match from 12:41 to 12:51 to 15:00 to last night’s total.
The Rangers are 2-3 in shootouts with Henrik Lundqvist stopping 12 of 17 shots and his teammates scoring on four of 19. Brad Richards, who missed the net off a late deke in last night’s second round, is 0-for-5 after entering the season 25-for-60.
Derek Stepan scored for his first NHL shootout goal on his first attempt of the season after going 0-for-5 last year. Stepan missed five times within 29 games a year ago, getting his last chance on Feb. 1.
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Rangers are 24-6-1 after starting the season 3-3-3. The club’s league-leading .725 winning percentage (27-9-4) represents the franchise’s best 40-game mark since the 1971-72 club opened 27-6-7 at .763. The 1971-72 Rangers lost the Cup Finals to Boston in six games.
Lundqvist has won seven straight, allowing two or fewer in each and a sum of eight goals over that stretch. The King has allowed two or fewer in 10 of his last 11 starts and in 21 of his 30 starts overall, not including the Oct. 22 match in Edmonton when he left early in the third with a foot problem.
Tortorella has changed the look of his power play by opening with Dan Girardi rather than Michael del Zotto on the right point, but the coach explained that it’s not because of malfeasance by Del Zotto but rather the desire to get a right-handed shooter on that side.
“We’d be doing a lot of battling on the walls and having difficulty gaining the middle of the ice,” said Tortorella, whose team went 0-for-1 with one shot on the man advantage last night and is 1-for-16 over the last seven games and 3-for-34 over the last 13. “This is no knock at Michael, but it was hard for him [as a lefty] to get it there. Brad [Richards] was having the same issue.
“Danny is one of the better ones at settling us down, but that being said, I want to be careful with adding too much ice time and I don’t want to lose Michael Del Zotto, so it’s something we’ll continue to look at.
“The reason we did it, though, was to get a right-hand shot there.”
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The Coyotes did not have a power play. It marked the first time this year the Rangers have not been shorthanded, though there have been five games in which the club has been shorthanded just once.
larry.brooks@nypost.com