COLUMBUS, Ohio — The focus shouldn’t be on which team is at the other end of the ice, but too many losses to bottom-tier clubs is a habit the Rangers don’t want to fall into.

Bouncing back from a ho-hum effort in a loss to the reeling Canadiens on Sunday, the Rangers handily took care of business in a 3-1 win over the Metropolitan Division trailing-Blue Jackets on Monday night at Nationwide Arena. Each of the Rangers’ last three losses have now been followed by victories.

The Rangers have learned how the defeats can pile up when they don’t respond, which seemed to be the case most nights through the first two months of the season. But there was no questioning the Rangers’ recovery from one game to the next in their eighth back-to-back set of the season.

“Whenever you have a game like [Sunday night], you’re glad you have a game the next night so you can kind of wash that out of your mouth,” said Barclay Goodrow, who led the Rangers with the first power-play goal of his career and an assist. “I thought the effort tonight was obviously much better. It’s good to get the win.”

Columbus showed its first real signs of life and made a push in the third period, when defenseman Andrew Peeke ended Jaroslav Halak’s shutout bid less than a minute and a half into the frame. The Rangers, guilty of their fair share of third-period collapses, also fended off a six-on-four power play in the final seconds after Jacob Trouba was called for interference.

Halak, who finished with 24 saves in his fourth win in a row, wasn’t tested much until the Blue Jackets came hard in that third period and held a 13-7 advantage in shots on goal. The Rangers and Halak looked like they were prepared for it, however, which indicates just how much progress has been made in such a short amount of time.

In addition to Goodrow’s contributions, Kaapo Kakko dished two helpers in the win. Let it be known that the highlight-reel play of the game came from Vitali Kravtsov, who crashed the net and buried a feed from Filip Chytil to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead at 11:47 of the second period.

Kravtsov’s five shots on goal were a game high and the Russian winger made things happen despite his demotion to the third line.

“It’s something you like when you see that happen,” head coach Gerard Gallant said of Kravtsov’s goal. “We talk about getting to the net more and putting more pucks to the net and so it was a good play by his linemates. He went hard to the net and he got rewarded.”

The first two of the Rangers’ five power plays on the night were much the same as they’ve been the last four games, when they went 0-for-11. It quickly became 0-for-13, but that all changed once Gallant sent out the second power-play unit and made some rare personnel alterations on the Rangers third man-advantage of the first period.

Replacing Kravtsov, who came into the game with two assists in his previous 11 contests, with K’Andre Miller, who has been piling on the points ever since his first goal of the season in early December, the second unit made it a 2-0 game after Goodrow tipped in Miller’s shot from the point.

Maybe we’ll see more of the second power-play unit. Maybe we won’t.

The Rangers, on the other hand, have seen what a lack of effort can result in against any team. They don’t want to have to make up for it again.