Blueline hierarchy matter of matchups

At first, Alain Vigneault was looking for the matchups he wanted when considering which defensemen he was sending over the boards. But then the Rangers’ coach had to deal with a constantly changing Senators lineup, hobbled with injuries to two forwards as Game 3 of the second-round series with the Senators wore on Tuesday night at the Garden.

And in the end, as the Rangers took an emphatic 4-1 victory, it seemed the hierarchy of his defensive pairs had changed. How that hierarchy will play out in Game 4 Thursday night is still to be seen, with the Blueshirts having cut the Senators’ lead to 2-1.

“You’ve got to trust your players and obviously [in Game 3], it was just because of the nature of how the game unfolded, sometimes you just get away from [matchups],” Vigneault said after Wednesday’s practice at the Garden. “I thought for the most part, it worked out fairly well.”

As a l wa y s , captain Ry a n McDonagh led the team with 26:52 of ice time. But what changed below him was the duo of rookie Brady Skjei (20:13) and Brendan Smith (19:39) leapfrogging the more veteran combination of Marc Staal (16:17) and Nick Holden (14:29).

“It might be hard to tell sometimes, but we are looking for certain matchups,” Vigneault said. “There’s no doubt that our group, Ryan is going to play more than the other five just by what he can do for us on the power play and penalty killing. The other five, there’s a mixture of depending on what the other team is doing, because there are certain matchups that I’m looking for.”

Winger Rick Nash missed practice for “maintenance,” according to the team. It was the second practice he has missed in the past 10 days, but after a consultation with trainer Jim Ramsay, Vigneault said he was not concerned about Nash’s availability for Game 4.

“He could’ve practiced,” Vigneault said. “He’ll probably skate [Thursday] morning and be good to go.”