Here it is.
This is the one.
This is the one the Rangers need in order to play for the Stanley Cup again. This is the one more victory they need in order to have the chance to right the wrong that has haunted them since last June 13.
Game 7 of the conference finals against the worthy Lightning at the Garden on Friday, winner on to the Cup finals, loser on to a summer of regret.
It has been a series as unpredictable as entertaining, all but impossible to project period by period — forget about game by game — and one through which the scoreboard often has not been aligned with the play on the ice.
The Rangers own an abundance of experience and operate with the positive reinforcement fostered by their famous 6-0 record in Game 7s over the past four springs. No doubt that history is on their side.
Far more important, however, is that Henrik Lundqvist is on the Rangers’ side.
Mystique and aura emanate from Game 7 Lundqvist, and there is little doubt that those ethereal qualities infuse his teammates with a preternatural calm and confidence for these win-or-else matches in which the Rangers have thrived since 2012.
But there was a point in these Eastern Conference finals at which Steven Stamkos or Tyler Johnson or Jon Cooper would have been well within his rights to suggest that Mystique and Aura could be found performing at that famous gentlemen’s club on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.
That observation might have been last week in the aftermath of a Game 3 in which Lundqvist had allowed six goals for the second consecutive match and seemed as lost as he ever had been in his 10-year career, vexed by the talented Lightning’s attack. The Rangers were behind in the series 2-1 with Game 4 in Tampa.
“They’re so good at sucking you out of the net, and me coming out and being aggressive against them in that way isn’t me,” Lundqvist told The Post following Thursday’s practice, discussing the adjustments he made following that 6-5 overtime Game 3 defeat. “I have to stay deep. I can’t fall into that trap.
“There are people who think that my playing deep is a sign of weakness, but it isn’t,” the goaltender said, injecting an entirely unexpected ingredient into the mix. “I can still be aggressive and play deep.
“I’ve gone back to my foundation,” said the King, who has been exceptional while allowing a total of six goals in the past three games. “For me, I just have to be consistent with it.”
There is a well-known elegance to Lundqvist, the cover boy on a Bloomingdale’s catalogue in a pose with his gorgeous, nearly 3-year-old daughter, Charlise.
“I’ve been working with Ralph Lauren the last couple of years,” Lundqvist said. “We did this for Father’s Day.”
But there is also a steel to Lundqvist, a burning competitive desire to win. The morning of Game 6, Lundqvist shrugged off the suggestion that the remarkable glove save he had made on Stamkos’ bullet from 10 feet away in the slot early in the second period of a then-scoreless Game 5 had been anything noteworthy. The goaltender explained it away before getting to the crux of it.
“We lost, so what’s the difference?” he said. “What does it matter?”
But Thursday, when the suggestion was made he probably liked his rapid-reaction left-pad save on Stamkos alone at the right porch with 5:48 to go in the first period that preserved a 1-0 lead and was followed almost immediately by Keith Yandle’s goal, Lundqvist beamed.
“Now that one I did like,” he said. “You know, it is only about winning. To not be able to make that extra save and help us win, when I’m not able to do enough, it’s just so disappointing.”
Rick Nash’s Games 4 and 6 were the two best of his playoff career, with No. 61 both times establishing a fierce physical presence that set a tone for his team. The Rangers need an encore on Broadway, where Nash has been mostly quiet for the past two rounds. This odd-even thing might work for the baseball Giants, but not for the hockey Rangers as it applies to Nash.
Game 7 is when your name goes up on the marquee.
And there is no one more marquee-worthy than Lundqvist, who has allowed a sum of five goals with a 0.81 goals-against average and .973 save percentage in the past six win-or-else games. And there is no one with a greater sense of where he is than the goaltender.
“I don’t know if I’m comfortable [in these situations], I just try to go out and do my job,” he said. “You’re definitely nervous, but it comes down to teamwork. I feel comfortable when we’re in the right place.”
The Garden is the place and Friday night is the time.
This is the one.
This is the one the Rangers need to play for the Stanley Cup.
“Of course you think about it, but then you bring your focus back to where it needs to be, and that is on the job that needs to be done [Friday],” Lundqvist said. “Because even though you’re close, there is a lot of work to be done to get there.
“There really is.”
Game 7, and history, is on the Rangers’ side.
Far more importantly, so is Lundqvist.