PITTSBURGH — The Rangers continue to slide into the Olympic break.

In their second-to-last contest before the NHL pauses for 19 days, the Blueshirts didn’t show up until the third period of what turned out to be their 14th loss — 6-5 at the hands of the Penguins — in their last 18 games Saturday evening.

A reprieve can’t come soon enough for this Rangers team, which looked like it wanted to be anywhere but the PPG Paints Arena ice for 40 of 60 minutes.

“You score five goals and lose the game,” captain J.T. Miller said. “I guess the only positive today is that we didn’t quit, kept pushing, came down to the wire. When you have to score six times, it’s pretty hard to win the game. I like that we didn’t quit. That’s about it.”

Getting up for games has clearly been a struggle amid the organization’s public plans to retool the roster, but the lack of focus, execution and motivation early on in games has been a recurring issue since last season.

The fact that it’s only worsened amid a lost campaign paints a disconcerting picture for the foreseeable future.

Their current situation should not preclude the Rangers from skating with pride.

And yet opponents have feasted on their insecurities, costly mistakes and slow starts on a game-to-game basis.

The Penguins have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL since the end of December.

After members of the 2016 Stanley Cup-winning team were honored in a pregame ceremony, which included Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan and the currently injured Conor Sheary, the energy in the building was palpable from puck drop to the final whistle.

Entering the matinee matchup on a five-game win streak, Pittsburgh picked up where it left off and scored on two of its first four shots.

The multigoal lead was built just over six minutes into the contest, leaving the Rangers in what has been a familiar position this season: chasing from behind.

At a time when attention has shifted to the Rangers youth, the first period was concerning in more ways than one.

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Noah Laba, who missed three games earlier this month with an upper-body injury, absorbed a hit in the corner and was slow to the bench.

After trying to skate it off during the TV timeout, Laba reached for his shoulder and headed to the locker room.

Despite returning for one shift in the second period, Laba was ruled out for the remainder of the game with an upper-body injury.

There was no immediate update on the 22-year-old after the game.

Injury aside, it was a particularly tough opening frame for Scott Morrow.

The Rangers rookie defenseman committed a costly turnover that led to the Penguins first of two goals from Anthony Mantha before getting called for a late penalty.

Matt Rempe was also on the ice for the first two Penguins goals.

On the second one, Penguins forward Blake Lizotte took the puck right off Rempe’s stick. After that, Sullivan only deployed Rempe for one more shift in the first period.

“Some of it is just the way the flow of the game goes and we’re looking for certain matchups,” Sullivan said. “I try to utilize him in the situations where I think sets him up for success. Those are some of the plays I’m talking about, about execution and decision making. Sometimes, you just got to gain a zone or gain a line. I thought we had opportunities — that was one of them — where we could have got the puck out.”

The Rangers didn’t get on the board until there were just over 1:30 remaining in the second period, but it came on the first of their two total shots in the middle frame.

Pittsburgh, however, scored twice in the span of 20 seconds less than two minutes into the third period.

Not even a four-goal showing over the final 20 minutes was enough for the Rangers to climb out of the hole they dug.

“You can’t. You just can’t. You can’t let up two goals in 20 seconds,” said Vincent Trocheck, who — along with Alexis Lafrenière — led the Rangers with three points (one goal and two assists). “We have to be paying more attention to detail. We were in the right spots a lot of times too, like we’re where we’re supposed to be. We’re just not executing our job. We just have to be better at that. It’s the same giving up six goals, giving up two in 20, you just can’t do it.”