Lee calls out ‘unacceptable’ Isles no-show

The only thing the Islanders could hang their hats on Monday night was that their schedule showed another game Tuesday.

Until then, they may be seething over the effort they put on the ice in a 6-2 loss to the Rangers at the Garden.

“It’s unacceptable,” captain Anders Lee said. “These are the games we get up for. It shouldn’t be a question about our effort. We talk about battles and all that stuff. We shouldn’t have to answer a question about that. That should be a no-brainer.”

Instead, the Islanders (27-13-4) had to face reality after showing up for the first game between the rivals this season and delivering a clunker.

“I thought for us, the puck management was terrible,” coach Barry Trotz said. “Their top guys were better than some of our top guys. I thought our level of battle wasn’t where I expected it to be tonight. All that being said, we got what we deserved.”

They got burned by Artemi Panarin, the winger who turned in a dazzling five-point night after picking the Rangers over the Islanders last summer. They got outworked for more odd-man rushes than Trotz said he had seen against them “in a long, long time.” And they got left with a sour taste in their mouths that they hope to wash out Tuesday against the Red Wings and again Thursday when the Rangers visit the Coliseum.

“It wasn’t even close to good enough, not a good enough effort,” Lee said. “Too many times we didn’t come out with the puck, too many times we either gave it away or turned it over. That’s a good transition team over there and they put it down our throats.”

Trotz finally put goalie Semyon Varlamov (29 saves) out of his misery with 9:45 left in the third period after a Jacob Trouba slap shot made it 6-1 — the Rangers’ second goal in 81 seconds. The coach saw Varlamov go down and decided it was time to put in Thomas Greiss.

“Any time you get beat like that, you want another crack at them,” said Jordan Eberle, who scored one of the Islanders goals. “It’s uncharacteristic, it’s not the way we play. We know that, it’s been addressed already. The best part about this game is we get a chance to respond [Tuesday].”