Can Patrick Kane find chemistry with Kreider and Zibanejad in time for the playoffs?

The wins and losses don’t really matter anymore for the Rangers, as their regular season comes to an end next Thursday.  The Metropolitan Division title is just about out of reach, and home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs seems unlikely.

So, while coach Gerard Gallant is going to want to win every night, it’s more about ramping up the team’s game for the playoffs over the final five games, and getting everyone as ready as possible for April 17.

Goaltender Igor Shesterkin seems ready for Game 1, and the Kid Line of Alexis Lafrenière, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko seems ready as well. Even defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who missed 17 of the last 18 games with a shoulder injury, was expected to return to the lineup Wednesday, when the Rangers hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning, so he’s apparently ready, too.

But there’s still some fine-tuning left to do, and perhaps an experiment or two Gallant may want to try over the final five games. One thing the coach probably needs to see is whether the newest Ranger, Patrick Kane, can work playing on a line with No. 1 center Mika Zibanejad, though Kane sat out Wednesday night's game. Those two had not played together in five-on-five situations until Gallant tried them, along with Chris Kreider, in the third period of last Friday’s 3-2 overtime loss in Buffalo.

The three played together in the win over Washington on Sunday, but Kane missed practice Tuesday, so the job of building chemistry on the line remains a work in progress.

“Give us two games, where we get to talk,’’ Zibanejad said when asked about building chemistry with Kane. “We get to go through one game, and see how do we feel … That's what I did with ‘Bread’ [Artemi Panarin] and Vladdy [Tarasenko]. We talked after a couple games.’’

The line of Panarin, Zibanejad and Tarasenko, who was acquired by the Rangers from St. Louis on Feb. 9,  played well for a while, created plenty of scoring chances and stayed together for 11 games before Gallant broke them up on Sunday. But as well as they played together it meant that Kane, who was acquired from Chicago in a three-team deal Feb. 28, hadn’t had a chance to play with Zibanejad until now.

Kreider, though, has played with Kane — centered by Vincent Trocheck — while Zibanejad, Kreider’s longtime linemate, was playing with Panarin and Tarasenko,

“He's not too dissimilar from ‘Bread’ in that he's got his head up when he's got the puck. He's looking at the play, manipulating the defense,’’ Kreider said of Kane. “You’ve got to be ready for the puck, even when it doesn't look like he's going to give it to you, because that's usually when it comes. [And] the plays he can make on his backhand are just nuts.’’

Kreider and Kane do seem to have learned some things about each other from playing together. Kreider acknowledges he’s “probably not the easiest guy to play with,’’ since he’s always trying to leave the defensive zone early and try to take advantage of his speed to create scoring chances.

But Kane seems to have figured that out, and has on a few occasions tried that long dump-out pass, hoping Kreider can skate on to the puck.

“I’ve got to talk to him a little bit,’’ Kreider said. “I don't necessarily think he loves doing that. He wants to play [the puck] to tape. [But] we all kind of add a different element to the line, and it's about bringing it together and making it greater than the sum of its parts.’’

They have five games to do that.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.