Rangers’ defensive depth quickly being put to the test

The Rangers have boasted all season about their depth on the blue line, and recent events are making that easier to prove.

The club announced Wednesday that Kevin Shattenkirk is going to miss two to four weeks with a separated left shoulder suffered on a hit from the Lightning’s J.T. Miller during the 6-3 loss at Tampa Bay on Monday. Yet later Wednesday afternoon, fellow righty-shot defenseman Adam McQuaid returned as a full participant in practice for the first time since suffering a lower- body injury Oct. 25 in Chicago.

“The timing was perfect, with Shatty going down and having Adam come back and his ability to be full-go,” coach David Quinn said. “It was good timing from an injury perspective.”

Shattenkirk had slowly started to play better in the past few weeks, suffering through a knee injury that derailed his first season on Broadway and delayed his start to this season. But now it’s another setback for the New Rochelle kid who signed a discounted deal to play for the team he grew up rooting for.

“It’s a blow to us, he’s been playing well,” Quinn said. “But we have eight ‘D’ we feel comfortable in the lineup, night in, night out.”

McQuaid spent Wednesday’s practice alongside Brady Skjei, but the pairs were a little skewed because veteran Marc Staal was given a maintenance day. But the 32-yearold McQuaid was hoping that playing in Friday’s Garden match against the Coyotes was a possibility.

“I’m pretty pleased with it,” McQuaid said after practice. “Sometimes it’s a wait-and-see, next-day type thing. I missed that more physical, compete element. So it was nice to throw that in the mix a little bit. ... Today was a good step.”

Winger Pavel Buchnevich was a full participant in practice and seems ready to return from the broken thumb that has kept him out since Nov. 10. He skated on the right side of a line with Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes.

“We’re hoping for Friday,” Quinn said, “and that’s the plan.”

Regular back-up goalie Alex Georgiev is slated to get his fourth straight start for AHL Hartford on Thursday night in Charlotte. In hopes of keeping Georgiev fresh, he went down to the minors and started three games in four nights, giving up 13 goals on 85 shots (.847 save percentage) while the Wolf Pack lost all three games.

It’s possible Georgiev stays in Charlotte and starts again against the Checkers on Saturday night before returning to the Rangers. If that’s the case, Dustin Tokarski would likely remain the backup for Henrik Lundqvist on Friday.