There was no juice left to wring from this stone. Mentally and physically exhausted, the lineup depleted by injuries and the one-game suspension assessed to Pavel Buchnevich for his high-sticking antics in Wednesday’s Armageddon, the Rangers were 4-0 fodder in Boston on Thursday to a Bruins team suddenly rolling toward the playoffs.

“We all understand the circumstances we’re in,” said head coach David Quinn, whose team had been outshot 30-7 when the Bruins scored their third goal, at 1:07 of the third period, en route to a 34-15 final shots tally. “This was just a challenging night to say the least.

“I know what the shots were and it looked ugly at times out there but these guys competed their asses off. There’s a lot of good here right now and it’s just unfortunate that we’re in this position right now.”

The Blueshirts have lost five straight in regulation and have been outscored by an aggregate 21-5. They were shut out twice by the Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov and blanked in this one by Jeremy Swayman. Wednesday night’s fight card versus the Capitals aside, the Rangers are going gently into that good night of the offseason, which will begin following Saturday’s finale in Boston.

Still, it was a night on which neophytes, such as Cornell’s Morgan Barron and Massachusetts’ Zac Jones, got another taste of life in the NHL. There is value to that.

“I think without question there is [value] any time you play teams like this that give you an idea of what it’s going to take to compete for a Stanley Cup,” Quinn said. “You think you know what effort is and you find a whole new level of effort when you play these types of teams.

“You think you know what smart hockey is and you find out what real smart hockey is. We’ve got some smart kids here who are getting their first crack at the NHL, they’re observing, they see the way the Bruins go about their game, the way the Islanders go about their game and there is definitely value to it.”

Barron played his fourth game, locked onto the fourth line with Kevin Rooney and Phillip Di Giuseppe a night after he had scored his first NHL goal in the third period of the 6-3 loss to the Capitals.

“It was definitely a little bittersweet,” said Barron, who has been engaged physically. “It’s something you work toward for a long time and just to get to the NHL and score goals is exciting. It came a few minutes too late in the game, I would have loved for it to come earlier but nevertheless just to be able to get that milestone checked off and get back to work today was a good feeling, for sure.”