PHILADELPHIA — Even with three healthy Czechmates in the lineup, goal scoring has been a problem pretty much since the All-Star break. Now, with Petr Nedved sidelined for the foreseeable future and Jan Hlavac probably out of this afternoon’s game here against the Flyers, offensive production is likely to be at a premium for the Rangers.

Which means the team’s defensive play is going to have to be much, much better than it’s been during the 5-10-4 post-All-Star Game slide to 10th place if the Blueshirts are to mount any sort of challenge for a playoff berth.

Kirk McLean will start in nets today, with Mike Richter scheduled to go in tomorrow night’s showdown in Pittsburgh. Kim Johnsson, the freshman who has played all season on the left side, will slide over to the right today and skate with Brian Leetch. It’s a last-resort move from John Muckler, who has obviously had his fill watching Kevin Hatcher and Stephane Quintal come up short with the captain.

“I haven’t played the right side for a couple of years but I don’t think it will be a problem,” said Johnsson, scratched in each of the last two games to make room for the physical Rich Pilon. “I always played both sides before that, so I think I’ll be comfortable.”

Johnsson’s return to the lineup will aid the team’s speed quotient and ability to move the puck out of its own zone, where the Rangers lately have broken down, and thus often have been pinned for shifts at a time.

“The more hockey you play in your own end, the more mistakes are going to develop, and we’ve been playing too much hockey in our own end,” Mathieu Schneider said following yesterday’s practice at Rye. “It’s our own fault; we’ve gotten away from making the simple play and have tried to be too fancy.

“We’ve tried to make too many plays as individuals in our own end and in the neutral zone, even though we should know by now that that’s counter-productive. When we were playing well, we were creating turnovers in the neutral zone and capitalizing on our transition game. Now, we’re the team committing the turnovers.

“For a few games, we were having trouble with our coverage behind and in front of the net. Now that we’ve corrected that to a large extent, we’re having other breakdowns,” the defenseman continued. “On the really good teams, players cover up for each other, they’re able to adjust and lend support on a breakdown.

“With us lately, one breakdown leads to a second, that leads to a third, and then the puck is in the net. We really have to simplify things again and do a better job of communicating.”

Sylvain Lefebvre, Schneider’s partner and probably the Rangers’ most reliable defenseman for the last month, said yesterday he thinks communication on the ice has lately been lacking.

“It has to be a six-man unit in the defensive zone with everyone communicating, which is something we haven’t been doing especially well,” Lefebvre said. “I think we’ve fallen back into a pattern we had at the start of the season where we’re trying to do too much instead of just taking care of our own jobs. When you’re trying to do too much that can be as devastating as not trying hard enough.

“At this point we’re reacting too much instead of anticipating. Defense is all about reading and reacting, but we’re reacting too late. We’re not playing a natural game. We have to get back to that, we have to get back to playing with confidence, not just in our own zone, but all over the ice.”

Theo Fleury will play center today between Valeri Kamensky and Radek Dvorak, while Mike York skates between Adam Graves and John MacLean. Rob DiMaio and Alexandre Daigle will flank Tim Taylor with P.J. Stock, Eric Lacroix and Johan Witehall forming the fourth line. Hlavac, who has not skated since suffering a hip-pointer during the first period of Wednesday’s tie against the Lightning, is not optimistic he can play.