How do the Rangers regain their confidence?

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Rangers have fallen and they can’t get up.

Going into their final game of the calendar year on Monday against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, they had lost 14 of their last 18. They traded their captain, and former No. 2 overall pick in separate deals. And on Monday, the Rangers broke up their top power play unit, a group that had been together for the better part of five-plus seasons.

What’s next?

“Get the confidence back,’’ Filip Chytil said.

“We didn’t forget how to play hockey,’’ Chytil said Sunday, after the Rangers’ final practice of the year. “This team, with a couple different players, was in the conference final last year, and we didn’t forget to play hockey just over a couple months. So it’s been about the confidence.’’

All athletes talk about confidence and how important it is in order to succeed. But if the Rangers have lost their confidence, how do they get it back?

“It takes a win,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said. “I mean, you’ve got to win, as a team. You’ve got to figure out how to find a way to win. And inside of that, there’ll be goals scored, and lines can gain confidence. Players can gain confidence. A power play can gain confidence. You know, losing is something that takes away from all of that.’’

So you need to win in order to have the confidence to make the plays you need to make. But you need to have confidence to make the plays you need to make in order to win.

So does the chicken come first or the egg?

Chytil started off the season centering what was the Rangers’ most dynamic line, between wingers Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko. When that trio was on the ice, the Rangers dominated possession, outshot and out-attempted opponents, and most impressively, outscored opponents 13-2. Chytil was a one-man breakout, carrying the puck with speed from the defensive zone into the offensive zone. Kakko dominated possession along the boards in the offensive zone, and Cuylle was constantly in front of the net, creating havoc for goaltenders and scoring goals.

But things changed after Chytil inadvertently collided with teammate K’Andre Miller in a game against San Jose on Nov. 14. The Rangers managed to win the next two games after that, the first two games of their four-game trip to Seattle and Western Canada, but they lost the last two games on the trip, lost five straight, and are 6-14 since Chytil got hurt.

Chytil missed seven games with what the team called an upper-body injury. Since returning, he had played in 13 games before Monday, recording two goals and an assist. But he hadn’t scored a point in his last five games. Overall, he had six goals and six assists in 28 games.

He blames his lessened production on a lack of confidence.

“When you have confidence to make plays, even when you make a mistake, it’s easy to play because you still know that you’re going to have another chance [after] the mistake,’’ he said. “You will do the right play, and it ends up in the net, or we have a big [scoring] chance. But right now, sometimes it feels like we are a little – I’m speaking personally for our line – like sometimes we’re trying to find the easier way to just dump the puck, or just rim the puck, when [instead] we could have a possession and make some play … But it’s got to change. And it’s the same with the whole team.’’

Kakko, who was Chytil’s most frequent linemate for both of their NHL careers, was traded on Dec. 18, and Laviolette has mixed up his forward lines as the Rangers’ struggles continued. The last few games, the coach has gone back to the lines he started the season with, inserting rookie Brett Berard in Kakko’s place next to Chytil and Cuylle. That trio had only played nine minutes and one second together entering Monday, but had promising numbers. They had been outscored 1-0, but had outshot opponents 7-4, and out-attempted them 9-5.

“Like what we’re saying with the confidence, it’s just maybe we’re gonna score one goal and it’s gonna start going and going, and we build on that, and everything starts again,’’ Chytil said. “But this is not easy, and we just have to get out of this. And how I said, we know how good we are, but we have to remember that we are good players.’’