This was the time and this was the place for Igor Shesterkin to get back-to-back starts for the fifth time in his NHL career, the third ever after a complete-game performance and the first of that ilk since the end of October of 2022.

Saves were of the urgency Sunday night against the Oilers. Shesterkin, coming off a 21-save, 4-0 shutout of the Jackets on Saturday in Columbus, made a lot of them. But, alas and alack (of the Blueshirt offense), the goaltender didn’t make enough of them in what became a 3-1 Edmonton victory at the Garden to drop-kick the Rangers out of a playoff spot.

Shesterkin was excellent but perhaps not quite as staunch as Stuart Skinner at the other end. Maybe that’s not fair, the winner from Viktor Arvidsson from the right dot off a rush at 6:09 of the third to break a 1-1 tie ramped up the blade of Zac Jones when the defenseman tried to suppress the attempt, but this was also sort of representative of the Russian netminder’s season in which many of his best performances have been blemished with a pimple or two.

The Rangers have been hailed for rescuing their season from the Dark Ages of December, but that has now become kind of an overcorrective narrative. The fact is that the team is almost exactly what the record says it is over the past 20 games over which the Rangers have won nine (9-9-2).

They are mucking around with the Jackets, Canadiens, Red Wings, Bruins and the Islanders of the world, ranked 20th in the league with a .529 points percentage. If the final 14 games of the schedule represent metaphorical life-or-death experiences, that’s because the NHL’s spreading mass of mediocrity has expanded exponentially.

“It’s just the situation we’re in right now to make the decision to come back with Shesty,” coach Peter Laviolette said in explanation of going with Shesterkin back-to-back for the second time in his two-year tenure behind the bench. “[Saturday] wasn’t a real heavy night for him and he has played really well his last couple of starts.

“We made the call to stay with him.”

Entering this one, Shesterkin had elevated his game to the tune of 4-2-2 with a .929 save percentage and 1.87 GAA with two shutouts since coming off IR (upper body) when the schedule resumed after the 4 Nations Face-Off. And he was solid in this one in back of a team whose commitment to 200-feet-by-85-feet defense was noticeable.

But as the Blueshirts have become more responsible in their two-way game, the attack has sputtered. The power play, now made up of unfamiliar parts working in unfamiliar places after key components Chris Kreider and Adam Fox had missed some noticeable time, has caved at the worst time of year.

See, there is J.T. Miller flinging one attempt after another from the circle, five missing the target, one being blocked and two stopped by Skinner. See, there is Artemi Panarin with 12 total attempts, six of them blocked and four hitting the net.

See, there are the Rangers, with Fox back after an eight-game absence, 0-for-3 in this one and 1-for-20 over their past seven contests with a variety of actors filling roles. Laviolette noted that the team practices with the man advantage with every opportunity that presents itself, but clarity is lacking and so, probably most to the point, Kreider has been AWOL as the NHL’s ultimate net-front presence.

The Rangers played responsibly even if a lack of discipline that awarded the Oilers three power plays within the opening 18:53 took an early toll. As per his wont, Laviolette generally cut down to seven or eight forwards by the third period even though not one of them is on a heater. Going with the double-center experiment reduces the margin for error.

The head coach is looking to squeeze blood out of the Panarins, Kreiders and Mika Zibanejads even if plasma is running low.

The Rangers got themselves back into it after their dreadful December, but the fact is that the team has not won as many as three straight games since their last three-game winning streak ended in Calgary on Nov. 21.

Since then, the Blueshirts have won two straight seven times. They managed to lose the next one seven straight times, though they have gotten three losers’ points out of them. That probably does not have anything to do with whether Shesterkin did or did not play.

For the Rangers are on the NHL .500 local, a 9-9-2 treadmill to obscurity.