Before the puck drops for Monday’s game between the Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers were six points behind the idle Montreal Canadiens for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with six games remaining.

Mathematically, they remain alive for a longshot bid for the 16-team playoff field. But with the way Montreal (five straight wins) and the Rangers (2-2-1 in the five games before Monday) have been playing, there is little hard evidence to suggest the Blueshirts are going to be able to make up that ground.

So the prudent thing for the Rangers would be to look beyond the final games of this season. They should be looking at these games in the context of making decisions for next season – as in, what do they need to correct, or upgrade this summer to make sure they aren’t in this same situation a year from now?

General manager Chris Drury is going to have to make some decisions over the summer, and these final two weeks should be used as an opportunity to gather information on which young players can help next season, which older players can’t, and what he need to add to the roster to get the Rangers back into the playoffs and back onto the short list of Stanley Cup contenders in 2025-26.

One thing Drury and whoever the coach is next season – in the event Peter Laviolette doesn’t return – will have to figure out is who the best choice is to be the defense partner for Adam Fox. Is that player currently on the roster?

After playing most of his six NHL seasons with longtime friend Ryan Lindgren as his partner, Fox, the Jericho native and former Norris Trophy winner, needed a new partner after Lindgren was dealt to Colorado last month. For the last seven games, Fox has been paired with newcomer Carson Soucy, who was acquired at the deadline from Vancouver.

Needing a new partner is an adjustment for Fox. He and Lindgren have been friends since they were 16 and playing together with the U.S. National Development Program in Michigan. They were roommates for a time in New York.

“It was kind of a weird situation,’’ Fox said. “I was hurt [on injured reserve with an upper body injury], not really here during that time when he was gone. But you play six years with the same person, you get familiar. He’s someone that I'm close with off the ice. So it was definitely a transition.’’

Though Fox and K’Andre Miller had been an effective pair at the start of the season, Miller over the past few months had formed a solid partnership with Will Borgen, and Laviolette opted to keep them together. Fox partnered with Urho Vaakanainen for a while, but eventually Laviolette paired him with the 6-5, 208-pound Soucy, a native of Viking, Alberta.

“He's a bigger body and a bit more – thinks the game a little bit more defensive,’’ Laviolette explained. “Adam thinks it a little bit more offensively. The numbers have been good with them there. I think [Soucy]'s done a good job. He keeps it simple. He's played good defense, and he's delivered some offense for us as well."

Soucy had a goal, two assists and an even plus/minus rating in 11 games with the Rangers before Monday. And the numbers for his partnership with Fox were good over a small sample size. Entering Monday, the pair had played 98 minutes, 35 seconds together at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, and the shot attempts (116-82), shots on goal (54-36) and goals for/against (4-2) were all in the Rangers’ favor.

“He plays a pretty similar game to ‘Lindy’ in terms of the simplicity, and going back on pucks, and breakouts and everything like that,’’ Fox said. “So I think we've done a good job of finding that familiarity.’’

“He's obviously a pretty special player,’’ Soucy said of Fox. “I try to let him do his thing most of the time. [I have to] be ready to back him up, because obviously he can bring that offensive ability that he's kind of known for."

Soucy said there’s a little more to playing with a player like Fox than simply staying back and letting Fox join the rush. But, he said, at the start of the partnership he’s preferring to be cautious and play that way as the two players get to know each other better.

But whether Soucy can be the long-term answer for the question of Fox’s long-term partner remains to be seen. It’s one of the things Drury will hope to find out over the last six games.