Jason Szenes for New York Post
It was one against three in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, when none of Artemi Panarin’s teammates hurried to back him up after he was jostled by Travis Konecny and accosted by two more of the Black and Orange late in the first period of a particularly desultory performance.
But it was three against three, or five against five, and maybe six on five at the Garden 24 hours later, whenever the Canadiens — smarting from an Oct. 22, 7-2 humiliation in Montreal in which Jacob Trouba crushed Justin Barron with a third-period trademark hit — wanted to start something, which they did more than once.
The Rangers exhibited a pack mentality that had been missing for weeks in their 4-3 victory over the Habs on Kaapo Kakko’s power-play goal at 19:36 of the third period that applied a tourniquet to their five-game regulation losing streak.
This was hardly a Picasso. Maybe it was even more of a finger painting, given the Blueshirts frittered away a 3-1 lead after the second period against the league’s 29th-overall team. But after a week of tumult and generally lousy hockey, the Rangers would put it in a frame.