PITTSBURGH — If it has seemed as if the Rangers were stuck in neutral for much of their opening two-game split at the Garden against the Penguins, that’s because they were.

Stuck in the neutral zone, that is, turned back because of repeated turnovers, a number of which were the byproduct of a stubborn streak reflected in the Blueshirts’ refusal to simply make the simple play and get the puck in deep rather than trying to force what wasn’t there against a conservative Pittsburgh defense.

“We were in the defensive zone more than we would have liked and didn’t get to play in the offensive zone as much as we would have liked,” Ryan McDonagh said on Sunday, in advance of Monday’s Game 3. “When we had the puck, we turned it over a lot more than usual.

“We didn’t have a lot of clean passing lanes. We went for a lot of stretch passes and we were spread out too much at times when we usually stay a lot closer to each other and make the short, bump plays out of our end.

“The byproduct was we didn’t have the puck as much.”

The Rangers not having the puck as much meant that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had it too much for New York’s good. There’s little doubt the Blueshirts let Crosby, who scored twice and was a presence on essentially every shift after having a negligible impact on Game 1, out of the barn. Now the Blueshirts have to attempt to corral him again.

“We made him defend a lot more in the first game,” McDonagh said of the Blueshirts’ 2-1 victory. “The puck was in their end a lot more.

“We’ve got to make him go 200 feet like we did in Game 1.”

The power play was a killer on Saturday, that’s obvious off a 1-for-7 performance in which the Rangers were 0-for-5 through the first two periods. But five-on-five was no panacea for the Blueshirts, who managed to send a total of six even-strength shots on Marc-Andre Fleury in the game’s first 39 minutes.

“We had trouble getting the puck in deep and attacking off the forecheck,” said Chris Krei-der, who hasn’t been much of a force. “We need to execute better, go tape-to-tape on north-south [plays] instead of east-west.

“We’ve got to recognize when to put the puck in places where Fleury or their defense can’t play it.”

There were a handful of occasions on Saturday when the Rangers made line changes after sending the puck into the Penguins’ end without much strategic purpose. Even though Pittsburgh didn’t take the lead until Crosby scored to make it 2-1 at 14:07 of the second, the Blueshirts were chasing all night, both with their legs and with their brains.

Coach Alain Vigneault said he is satisfied with the way the Rangers have played five of the series’ six periods. If so, he’s in the minority. When asked about being beaten to and for the puck so often on Saturday, the coach responded by saying, “I don’t think we’re going to win all the foot races and all of the battles against that team” before at least allowing, “Do I think we need to play better? There is no doubt.”

The battle-level thing will all but certainly be taken care of in Game 3. It is impossible to believe this team will allow itself to be outworked again.

“Theirs was improved from Game 1 to 2, and I don’t know if ours stayed at the same level,” said Dan Boyle. “But ours needs to improve also.”

Derick Brassard has played well, but his line with Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello needs to have more of an impact. Martin St. Louis had a good game on Thursday, not such a good one on Saturday. McDonagh was ordinary in Game 2. Kevin Hayes had a tough night. Henrik Lundqvist wasn’t at his very best, either.

These are the playoffs, where a team’s best players have to be just that on a pretty consistent basis. These are the playoffs, where being stuck in neutral is tantamount to going in reverse.