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With a handful of his fellow defenseman hobbled last week, Brian Dumoulin offered a brief but resolute assessment of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ back end.

“Unfortunate, obviously,” Dumoulin said Tuesday in PPG Paints Arena. “We’ll see what we’re made of coming up.”

At this rate, the Penguins’ threadbare blue line might be composed of nothing but baling wire, spent matchsticks, chewing gum, duct tape and irrational hope.

With Jeff Petry, Jan Rutta and Dmitry Kulikov all unavailable because of various maladies, the Penguins dressed a makeshift group for a road contest against the New York Rangers on Saturday that included reserve Chad Ruhwedel and emergency recall Mark Friedman.

That motley crew was blasted by the Rangers, 6-0, in a squalid decimation at Madison Square Garden that was one of the most lopsided failures the Penguins have been on the wrong end of during a season in which they have a surplus of such outcomes.

To amplify their deficit of hale and hearty defensemen, blueliner Marcus Pettersson left the game at 2 minutes, 4 seconds of the third period and did not return. No substantive update on his status was provided following the contest.

Petry and Rutta skated in a 4-2 road loss to the Rangers on Thursday, though Petry left that contest in the first period after suffering a suspected head injury.

Meanwhile, Rutta was dropped by a puck that struck his left knee during the third period of a 6-4 home loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday (a contest Petry failed to complete because of a different undisclosed ailment).

Their absences prompted the team to summon Friedman from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Saturday afternoon.

As for Kulikov, he is designated to long-term injured reserve.

Frankly, the Penguins could have had the likes of former All-Star defensemen such as Dave Burrows, Paul Coffey and Sergei Zubov in the lineup and Saturday’s result might have been the same.

The defeat was the third consecutive for the Penguins, who matched their worst loss of the season, at least in terms of deficit. On Feb. 11, they fell to the Los Angeles Kings, 6-0.

Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring 5:10 into regulation with his 36th goal.

Accepting a pass at the right point of the offensive zone, Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba chucked a wrister toward the cage. Positioned in the slot, Penguins rookie defenseman P.O Joseph was struck on the right leg by the puck. With Penguins forward Jeff Carter lapsed in defending on the sequence, Zibanejad corralled the puck in the right circle and flung a backhander through goaltender Tristan Jarry’s five hole. Trouba and defensive partner K’Andre Miller each had assists.

A power-play goal by forward Artemi Panarin – his 21st – put the hosts up by a pair late in the first period at the 19:49 mark.

With Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin in the penalty box for a boarding infraction, Dumoulin attempted to clear the puck from his own right corner only to turn it over to Rangers defenseman Adam Fox at the right point. Without hesitation, Fox swept a forehand pass above the left circle for Panarin who took advantage of ample space to operate with and whipped a wrister by Jarry’s blocker on the near side. The lone assist went to Fox.

Any notion of this being a competitive encouter was bluntly euthanized by a four-goal outburst by the Rangers.

A three-on-one rush led to Rangers forward Vladimir Tarasenko scoring his 15th goal 3:54 into the middle period.

With Penguins defenseman Kris Letang deep in the offensive zone in pursuit of offense, the Rangers were able to calmly generate an odd-man advance into the Penguins’ zone. Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Tarasenko centered the puck to Zibanejad in the slot. While Panarin mannd the right wing, Pettersson slid to the ice in hopes of creating an impediment. That led to Zibanejad feeding the puck back to Tarasenko, who cranked a one-timer by Jarry’s glove on the near side. Assists went to Zibanejad and Miller.

The Rangers poured it on less than three minutes later at the 6:43 mark with another odd-man rush resulting in forward Chris Kreider’s 31st goal.

Just as the Penguins’ first power-play opportunity of the contest expired, Kreider initiated a four-on-two rush from his own blue line. After Rangers forward Vince Trocheck gained the Penguins’ zone on the right wing, he drew in Dumoulin and centered a backhand pass to the right circle intended for Rangers forward Patrick Kane. After Pettersson blocked the puck momentarily, Kane regained possession then slipped a backhand pass to the far side of the crease where Kreider darted in and tapped a forehand shot through the five hole of a scrambling Jarry. Kane and Trocheck, of Upper St. Clair, tallied assists.

That score prompted the Penguins to pull Jarry, who absorbed the loss. Making 13 of 17 saves, his record tumbled to 20-9-6.

Backup Casey DeSmith entered the contest but allowed a goal on the first shot he faced by Trouba 116 seconds later.

Chasing down a loose puck on the right half wall of the offensive zone, Trouba faked a slapper and then maneuvered around Penguins forward Rickard Rakell. Moving below the right circle, Trouba lifted a bad-angle wrister that struck off the left side of DeSmith’s mask and deflected into the cage for the defenseman’s eighth goal of the season. Tarasenko and Zibanejad had assists.

Panarin put his team up by a touchdown at 16:38 of the second period.

After Friedman lost a puck battle to Panarin in the Penguins’ right corner, Rangers forward Filip Chytil wound up with possession behind the net then drove to the left circle where he fed a pass to Kane in the opposite circle. As Friedman and Dumoulin as well as Penguins forwards Jason Zucker and Ryan Poehling struggled to present any semblance of a defensive structure, Kane dished a dicing pass to Panarin, who buried a forehand shot behind a helpless DeSmith. Assists went to Kane and Chytil.

DeSmith completed the game with five saves on seven shots.

Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves to record his second shutout of the season.

• The Penguins were last shut out by the Rangers in a 3-0 road loss on April 7, 2022. Shesterkin made 30 saves in that contest. Most notably, he waved “goodbye” to the Penguins after the game.

• The Penguins’ only worse shutout loss to the Rangers was a 7-0 defeat at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 11, 1973. Forward Bryan Hextall — father of current Penguins general manager Ron Hextall — had two of the 33 shots that the Penguins were unable to put behind goaltender Eddie Giacomin.

• Forward Danton Heinen was the Penguins’ lone healthy scratch.

• Panarin now has 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists) in 27 career games against the Penguins.

Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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