Rangers, Reeling at Home, Are Now Short-Handed, Too Bruce Bennett/Getty Images Rick Nash, right, battling the Predators" Nick Spaling on Tuesday, faces his former team, the Blue Jackets, for the first time Thursday. GREENBURGH, N.Y. - Winless three games into a record nine-game homestand, the Rangers can perhaps gain inspiration from familiar faces. The Rangers last won at home when they beat their former coach John Tortorella's Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 30. On Thursday night, they face the Columbus Blue Jackets; each club has five players who were previously on the other squad. It will be Rick Nash's first game against his former team since he was traded to the Rangers in July 2012. "It will be fun, but I think I only know one guy, maybe two or three guys that I played with," said Nash, who missed the Rangers" game in Columbus last month because of a concussion. It's a totally different team. More importantly, we have to win games here. We're worried about the Rangers. There are plenty of reasons to be worried. The Rangers are dealing with two critical subtractions to their lineup: the captain Ryan Callahan, who will miss four to six weeks with a sprained knee sustained in Tuesday's loss to the Nashville Predators, and defenseman Marc Staal, who sustained yet another concussion in a loss to the Devils on Saturday. "The hockey gods are testing us," Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. We've put it upon ourselves these last few games here. We're definitely not playing the way we want to play. We have to be more patient. At 15-16-1, the Rangers have yet to distinguish themselves in a weak eight-team Metropolitan Division, which now contains the Blue Jackets (13-15-3). The Rangers have lost four of their last five and are 1-6-1 over the past month at the Garden. Coach Alain Vigneault said he had not figured out why the Rangers were not winning at the newly renovated Garden, where boisterous fans typically provide a considerable boost. "Our fans have been outstanding, but we haven't given them a lot to cheer for," he said. We're fighting it a little bit right now on the ice, and our confidence might be not to where it needs to be. That support is needed and that support is appreciated. Without Staal and Callahan, there will be heightened pressure to win, the veteran center Dominic Moore said. "You lose a player like Cally, you have to come together as a team," he said. There are no excuses in this league. We have to keep working on getting better and earning our breaks. Vigneault said the team's effort had been there - without the reward of consistent victories. "As far as work ethic, practices and off-ice work, this group works as hard as any group I've been associated with," said Vigneault, who coached the Canucks the previous seven seasons. Usually when you have that type of effort, it translates on the ice. It hasn't so far. I think it will. To help fill the holes in the lineup, the Rangers called up defenseman Dylan McIlrath from Hartford of the American Hockey League. The 6-foot-5 McIlrath, 21, was the Rangers" first-round draft pick in 2010, selected 10th over all. Vigneault has wanted to add "bite" to the lineup and improve the team's "compete level." The Rangers recalled Arron Asham this week to that end, and McIlrath, who leads the A.H.L. with 115 penalty minutes, could also help if he makes his N.H.L. debut Thursday night. Other players on the ice will be more familiar with the Blue Jackets. Nash, the leading scorer in Blue Jackets history, was traded to the Rangers for Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and Tim Erixon in July 2012. Columbus also has the ex-Ranger defenseman Fedor Tyutin, while the Rangers have the former Blue Jackets defenseman Anton Stralman. Marian Gaborik, who twice scored 40-plus goals for the Rangers before being shipped to Columbus for Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore in April, will not be part of the big reunion. He has been out since Nov. 17 with a knee sprain.