Home finally can be where the start is for the Rangers. With the Knicks not expected to use the renovated Garden anytime soon, what better way for the Blueshirts to reacquaint themselves with their overhauled arena - or to prepare for their long-awaited home opener Thursday night - than to hold a rare practice in Manhattan Wednesday instead of at their facility in Greenburgh?

Home finally can be where the start is for the Rangers. With the Knicks not expected to use the renovated Garden anytime soon, what better way for the Blueshirts to reacquaint themselves with their overhauled arena - or to prepare for their long-awaited home opener Thursday night - than to hold a rare practice in Manhattan Wednesday instead of at their facility in Greenburgh?

The Rangers, who are 0-1-2 after playing twice in Sweden two weekends ago and losing in regulation Saturday night on Long Island, are facing four road games over seven days beginning Tuesday in Vancouver. The trip concludes a week from today in Winnipeg, before the Blueshirts finally return for their home opener at renovated Madison Square Garden against Toronto on Oct. 27.

Rangers captain Ryan Callahan believes playing an intense rivalry game against the Islanders Saturday night will enable the Blueshirts “to jump right back into it” following a week of nothing but practice and video since returning from the first two games of the season last weekend in Sweden.

The Rangers will have to finagle their roster to create enough salary-cap space this summer to afford the high-end talent John Tortorella covets. But there also will be several integral pieces of the Blueshirts’ burgeoning core looking for new contracts, highlighted by restricted free agents Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan.

After a relatively quiet first three games of this first-round series against the Rangers, Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau - known for his Rex-Ryan like bluster and profanity - took a few shots at Madison Square Garden and the Blueshirt faithful during a D.C. radio interview Monday morning.

Brandon Dubinsky’s at a playoff beard produced little more than patchiness on the sides of his face last week, so the 24-year-old Ranger forward groomed it away until only a ’70s-style mustache remained.

The NHL’s “second season,” as Rangers coach John Tortorella describes the playoffs, is akin to hitting the refresh button. That goes both for his team, and for individual players who have been unable to produce consistently or remain in the lineup over the past several weeks. No Ranger qualifies under that heading more than first-line winger Marian Gaborik.

If the Rangers hold on to clinch a playoff berth over their final six games, they are all but certain to be in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference draw. They will have to win games off Broadway in order to advance from there, which is where their season-long road-ice advantage - a 23-14-1 record away from Madison Square Garden - might come into play.

The Rangers didn’t play particularly well in either game this week against the Eastern Conference’s bottom two teams, squeezing out two points on Tuesday against Florida before admittedly being fortunate to secure one on Thursday against last-place Ottawa. Of their next five opponents, however, beginning with Saturday’s matinee in Boston, the seventh-place Blueshirts will play four teams currently above the playoff cutoff.