How do the Rangers regain their confidence and start winning games again?

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

Going into their final game of the calendar year Monday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, they had lost 14 of their last 18.

Earlier this month, they traded their captain and their former No. 2 overall pick in separate deals. And on Monday, coach Peter Laviolette broke up the club’s top power-play unit, a group that had been together for the better part of five-plus seasons.

So what’s next?

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

“We didn’t forget how to play hockey,’’ he said. “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 theirs, how do they get it back?

“It takes a win,’’ 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. But you need to have confidence to make the plays in order to win.

So does the chicken or the egg come first?

Chytil began the season centering the Rangers’ most dynamic line, between wingers Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko. When that trio was on the ice, the Rangers dominated possession and outshot, out-attempted and, most impressively, outscored their 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. Cuylle constantly was in front of the net, creating havoc for goaltenders and scoring goals.

But things changed after Chytil inadvertently collided with teammate K’Andre Miller against San Jose on Nov. 14. The Rangers managed to win their next two games to open a four-game trip to Seattle and Western Canada but lost the last two, kick-starting a five-game losing streak.

Chytil missed seven games with what the team called an upper-body injury. Since returning, he had played in 13 games entering Monday and contributed only two goals and an assist. He had not recorded a point in his last five games and had only six goals and six assists in 28 games this season.

Chytil 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 either ends up in the net or we have a big [scoring] chance.

“But right now, sometimes it feels like we are — I’m speaking personally for our line — 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 a 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. Since his departure, Laviolette has mixed up his forward lines as the Rangers’ struggles continued. But in the last few games, Laviolette has gone back to the lines with which he started the season, with rookie Brett Berard taking Kakko’s place next to Chytil and Cuylle.

That trio, which had played only nine minutes together entering Monday, had put up some promising numbers. They 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 as I said, we know how good we are, but we have to remember that we are good players.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.