Kid’s skid comes at bad time

It wasn’t easy for Jimmy Vesey to sit and watch, as the Rangers rookie winger was made a healthy scratch for the team’s shootout loss to the Penguins on Friday night.

But just as coach Alain Vigneault had said, it wasn’t a long absence for the 23-year-old out of Harvard, as he rejoined the lineup for the 4-3 victory over the Flyers on Sunday night at the Garden.

“This time of the year, it’s the most fun time. This is what we work for, going into the playoffs,” Vesey said before he was a minus-2 over 14:25 of ice time on a line with Michael Grabner and Kevin Hayes. “It’s not fun to watch your teammates play and sacrifice their bodies and work hard in the games. You want to be out there beside them. Definitely want to get back in the lineup and prove to the coaches that I can be counted on going down the stretch.”

There was no pulling punches from Vigneault when he spoke of the awful game Vesey played in San Jose on Tuesday, and Vesey didn’t shy away from agreeing with the evaluation — even if it was the outlier for the way he had been playing.

“The last couple weeks, I’ve actually been playing really well,” said Vesey, who now has one goal in his last 21 games and 15 on the season. “For whatever reason, San Jose I just wasn’t making the plays when it was coming up my wall in the ‘ D’ zone, and they capitalized on a couple.”

Captain Ryan McDonagh missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury, but Vigneault is not overly concerned with his team pretty well locked into the first wild-card spot with three games remaining.

“He’s day-to-day,” Vigneault said. “He’ll come back when he’s 100 percent. He’s real close to being 100 percent, but considering our situation right now, he’s going to take the time that we need here.”

Pavel Buchnevich was a healthy scratch for the fourth time in the past nine games, as the 21-yearold Russian rookie had a tough time on Friday and was quickly replaced in his top-six role by J.T. Miller.

“I thought Butchie was having a tough time on the wall,” Vigneault said. “Pittsburgh is a high-pinching team. When we moved J.T. there, I thought that line was a little bit more effective.”