Vigneault denies a deficiency in lineup

If the Rangers are going to make a call-up from AHL Hartford soon, it’s unlikely to be Filip Chytil.

The 18-year-old Czech forward, who made the Rangers out of camp but was demoted Oct. 10 after playing sparingly in two NHL games, suffered a minor injury blocking a shot for the Wolf Pack on Saturday. The injury isn’t considered serious, but it was a factor in Chytil not playing a third game in three nights with Hartford finishing its jampacked weekend with a Sunday matinee, an ugly 6-3 loss in Bridgeport.

“From what I can understand is the last game wasn’t a Picasso,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said before his team was whipped by the Sharks, 4-1, on Monday night at the Garden.

The loss dropped the Rangers to 2-6-2 on the season, and the question posed to Vigneault afterward was whether the personnel he currently has is good enough to turn it around.

“The personnel is good,” Vigneault said. “We’ve just got to play the right way.”

Vigneault dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second straight game — and fourth time this year — as he struggled to find the right combinations both upfront and on the back end. He ended up playing seventh-defenseman Tony DeAngelo more than expected, giving him 6:46 of even-strength time and 12:46 overall.

The two forwards scratched to make room were Adam Cracknell and Paul Carey.

“Adam or Paul are not true centerman,” Vigneault said. “So I feel that the way the schedule is laid out for us right now, we have a better chance with 11 forwards and I can double-shift a couple of those guys and play seven ‘D’.”

Vigneault said that he and general manager Jeff Gorton wanted to get through games on Saturday and Monday before making a decision on what they should do going forward, with two days before the schedule resumes Thursday night against the currently winless Coyotes at the Garden. That’s followed by a trip to Montreal for a game against the struggling Canadiens on Saturday night.

They could call up another forward soon, but it’s likely to be in a fourth-line center role — the exact type of situation they didn’t want to put Chytil in, nor Lias Andersson, the team’s other first-round pick who is playing in his native Sweden with Frolunda.

That leaves the most likely candidates as Boo Nieves and Vinni Lettieri, both of whom Vigneault mentioned by name and said, “had been playing well.”