The opponent doesn’t seem to matter much for the Bruins right now.

It could be the best team in the Eastern Conference like the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, or it could be the worst team in the Metropolitan Division, like it was on Thursday in Manhattan. The B’s are simply having a brutal time finding the back of the net.

As they did in Washington, the B’s had their chances to score but could only manage a single goal and they made just enough mistakes to drop a 2-1 decision to the Blueshirts at Madison Square Garden.

On this three-game road trip, the B’s have managed just two goals in the first two games and squandered two winnable games.

Jonathan Quick (32 saves) outdueled Jeremy Swayman (25 saves) for the win.

The Rangers, believed to be a Stanley Cup contender at the start of the season, were a wounded animal coming into the game. They were bringing up the rear in the Metro at 16-19-1, losers of 15-of-19 and dealing with internal turmoil.

But the B’s gave them life in the first period, falling down 2-0 on preventable goals.

The B’s were playing well in the early going, forcing Quick to make a couple of good saves. But the Rangers took the lead off a faceoff in their own zone. Off the draw win, the Blueshirts tried a long lob pass up the ice. Nikita Zadorov came over and collided with Charlie McAvoy in the neutral zone, allowing the puck to get behind them. Swayman came out to play the puck and delivered it directly to Chris Kreider high on the left wing. Kreider dished it down to Reilly Smith, who made a nice move on Swayman and got the puck behind him on a backhander. Mika Zibanejad, who has become a whipping boy for Ranger fans, came in to clean it up, pushing it all the way over the goal line at 9:48.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead at 12:53. Mason Lohrei stepped down from his left point position but could not win the puck and Filip Chytil sent Brett Berard off on a 2-on-1. Berard kept it and beat Swayman high to the shortside.

The B’s started to come on in the second period, but Quick was doing a good job of preserving the two-goal lead.

In one sequence he made three quality saves on Mark Kastelic, Justin Brazeau and, finally, John Beecher, snatching Beecher’s down-low wrister with a lot of empty net behind him.

But the B’s finally got on the board coming out of the first TV timeout. Coach Joe Sacco loaded up his first line with Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm and it paid off. Operating in the Rangers’ weak spot behind the net, Pastrnak skated behind the cage and made a great pass through the slot to an open Lindholm, who snapped home his seventh of the year at 7:57.

Quick shook that goal off and picked up where he had left off before it. It seemed like the B’s were poised to even the game up when Charlie McAvoy had a one-timer at the bottom of the left circle, but Quick came up with a huge stop.

The B’s continued to push in the third period, at least for the first 10 minutes, but their play got increasingly sloppy and the attack stalled. Desperation late in the period reignited them a bit. The eventually pulled Swayman but could not get the equalizer.

Sacco told reporters in New York that, while he didn’t have a definitive date, Hampus Lindholm is getting close to getting back on the ice. The defenseman as been out since taking a shot off the knee in St. Louis on Nov. 12.