NHL

Gaborik must be Rangers’ focus

Regarding the Rang ers, 4-1 in their past five games and 7-3 in their past 10 as they get set to meet the Penguins, winners of six in a row since their Nov. 15, 3-2 OT home loss to the Black-and-Blueshirts, tonight at the Garden in one of those marquee matchups that are few and far between:

There’s a difference between the team needing goalie Henrik Lundqvist to be its backbone in order to get to the playoffs and then do damage in the tournament and the team needing Lundqvist to be its best player by leaps and bounds in order to win games, as was the case on Friday in Florida and on Saturday in Nashville.

The collective exemplary work ethic and team-wide willingness to grind to the end and to stand up for teammates has earned the Rangers respect in addition to a 14-10-1 record. But the season simply is too long and too tough of a grind to expect the Blueshirts to succeed by grinding almost exclusively and to win consistently only by driving to the net and jamming home dirty goals.

Which means that as John Tortorella is charged with the responsibility of finding the key to unlock Marian Gaborik’s game once the elite sniper recovers from the flu, the coach is going to have to give Erik Christensen another look as the Great Gabby’s pivot.

It’s an open secret that Christensen and Sean Avery, an odd coupling, are the two forwards with the least margin for error on the club, the two forwards with whom the coach has the least patience for mistakes. This isn’t a psychology lab, it just is.

But there is no doubt that even as Derek Stepan has at least temporarily established himself as the club’s top all-around center two months into his rookie season at the age of 20, it is Christensen who is most simpatico with Gaborik, the scorer who has yet to establish his game.

The coach went on record last Friday in Denver calling Christensen “by far our most talented passer.” There is no question that Christensen and Gaborik have chemistry, even if it’s not quite a Nylander-Jagr type of thing. There is no question that Christensen is the Rangers forward most likely to spring Gaborik from the neutral zone and to find Gaborik inside the offensive zone on a back door or in a seam.

Christensen, who did get extra ice time as the Nashville game evolved (and helped win it with the game’s lone shootout score), is the player best equipped to produce the pretty goals and one-timers from the sniper that the team requires.

Remember this: For all of Stepan’s ability and vision, he is a righty with Gaborik on his right side shooting lefty. It’s difficult enough for a righty center to set up a right wing, even tougher when the winger is on his off side.

Tortorella likes Stepan’s checking ability, so it would be no surprise at all to see the freshman, who is far more engaged and much harder on the puck in the aftermath of his two-week, fourth-line homework assignment, matched tonight against the incandescent Sidney Crosby (12-13-25 in his past 12 games).

But preferably Stepan would be in the same spot he was on Saturday with Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan — the emerging star who deserves to be a Rangers’ All Star — while Gaborik, presuming he is healthy, skates with Christensen . . . and why not Avery?

The Odd Coupling plus Gabby.

Right. That’ll last with Tortorella.

OK then, Ruslan Fedotenko.

larry.brooks@nypost.com