UNIONDALE, NY – It’s a work in progress, and although the New York Rangers look great on paper it will take time for them to form a cohesive unit.

Take last night, for example. Looking good at even strength, the Blueshirts struggled on special teams situations in their 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders.

“It’s a matter of coming to the rink and practicing the little things that win us hockey games,” said Brendan Shanahan. “Because we are trying to get line combinations, we haven’t spent enough time on 5-on-3, 4-on-3, 6-on-4 with the goalie pulled. In the heat of a 30 second time out it’s not enough. These are the things we vow to work on.”

Very well, but coming back to the Garden at 1-2, the Rangers will need to quickly work on the special teams if they plan on being a Stanley Cup contender.

With the team playing very well at even strength and peppering Rick DiPietro with shots, the Islander netminder stopped 36 of the 37 Ranger shots, with only Fedor Tyutin coming through on a second period one-timer from Martin Straka at 2:09.

“We're getting chances," said Scott Gomez, one of the new Rangers who had four shots on goal, but failed to convert, especially during the power play. "If we were in a situation where we're not getting chances, that's when you've got to worry. What can you say? Three games in, Ricky played awesome. We threw everything at him."

Equally as impressing was Henrik Lundqvist, stopping 28 shots, but letting in two on unusual situations. The first on a 3-on-3 when Marc-Andre Bergeron took a faceoff from Mike Sillinger and slapped it by Lundqvist off the right circle with four seconds left in the first.

“It surprised me a little bit,” Lundqvist said. “I know it was a quick shot, but still it surprised me a little bit. I know it’s tough to let in a late goal. It was a little bad luck. Otherwise we played pretty well.”

Bad luck or bad timing? The game winner came with a little over six minutes left in the second with the Isles on a 5-on-3 when newly signed Bryan Berard knocked it past Lundqvist from the point. Logging on 8:21 of ice time, the former Ranger felt a little rusty as he quarterbacked the Islander power play.

“I came in to prove I'm healthy," said Berard, who now teams with Bergeron to give the Islanders are very good one-two punch from the points during man-advantage situations. "We came into the season with high expectations.

“I'm feeling good. I'm only going to get better."

The Rangers hope the same will happen to them after failing on six power play chances. Now with back-to-back games at the Garden this weekend, against Washington and Ottawa, respectively, the Blueshirts can correct their mistakes at home. “They were certainly able to capitalize on their power play and you've got to give them credit for that," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "We could have done a better job of staying out of the box, naturally, but I thought our attack game was good. I thought we had them hemmed in a number of times. And I thought when they had us, we kept them to the perimeter most often.

“So there are lots of good things to draw on, but we have to tidy up our game - let's not kid ourselves."