The Rangers wrapped seven of their core players in Bubble Wrap and stored them in the press box safely out of reach when the Canadiens came to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

OK, not literally. But the sentiment still stands.

It was the only thing to do after a couple of injury scares earlier in the week, and so the Rangers accepted a 4-3 loss to the reeling Canadiens, who snapped a nine-game losing streak, in their second-to-last game of the regular season.

“Nobody got hurt, that was a key thing tonight,” head coach Gerard Gallant said after the Rangers’ third straight loss in regulation, which hadn’t happened previously this season. “We played pretty well overall and we got through the game.”

Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad were all healthy scratches, while Andrew Copp (lower body) and Artemi Panarin (upper body) were held out of the lineup after exiting the 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday with injuries.

So that left a skeleton of the Rangers’ usual lineup, which did get at least one staple back in Kaapo Kakko, who was sidelined the previous four games with a lower-body injury that he sustained shortly after missing 31 straight contests with a suspected wrist injury.

Still, the Rangers B team went goal-for-goal with the Canadiens before Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry scored his second of the game with 30.7 seconds left in regulation to secure the win.

Libor Hajek skated in just his 17th game of the season and first since March 12. The 24-year-old defenseman lined up alongside Zac Jones, who was recalled from AHL Hartford earlier in the day to participate in his 12th NHL contest of the season.

As for the rest of the forward group, Jonny Brodzinski, Julien Gauthier and Greg McKegg filled in throughout the bottom six.

The decision to withhold Zibanejad from the lineup ended the Swede’s team-high streak of consecutive games played at 184. Keeping their No. 1 center healthy for the playoffs, however, was naturally more of a priority for the Rangers.

“I don’t care about consecutive games,” Gallant quipped. “The guys don’t care about that. The guys care about Monday coming up, or Tuesday coming up. That’s the bottom line. Chris Kreider has 52 goals, the record is just a couple away [at 54]. It would be great, but that’s not the most important thing in the world. And they all bought into that.”

Since Zibanejad, Kreider and Trouba sat out of Game 81 of 82, second-year defenseman K’Andre Miller is the only Ranger who has a shot at playing in every game this season.

Gallant said he wasn’t sure if he was going to sit different players against the Capitals on Friday, but it wouldn’t be surprising if more regulars were rested in the final game of the season. The players who are most likely to get a breather after competing Wednesday night include Ryan Strome, Barclay Goodrow, Frank Vatrano and Ryan Reaves.

Reaves knotted the game 1-1 with his fifth goal of the season less than five minutes into the middle frame, but Petry sniped one high on Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev with 8.8 seconds left in the second to regain the lead for Montreal.

The Rangers managed to stay in it after Vatrano beat Montreal netminder Sam Montembeault with a sharp wrist shot from the left circle 4:15 into the third period to even the score once again.

The teams continued to trade goals well into the final frame, one from Canadiens winger Mike Hoffman and a shorthanded goal from Strome, but Montreal had the last word as Petry scored the game-winner in the final seconds of the game to avoid overtime.

“Obviously the goal is to win every night, I don’t think we have lost three in a row probably since early in the season,” Kevin Rooney said. “We wanted to snap the losing streak, but obviously fell short. I thought a lot of the guys who maybe haven’t been playing a lot really stepped up and played a good game tonight.”