This won’t be over until the Rangers say it is over, because for all of the disappointing play in this Round 2, it would be a gross mistake to underestimate this team’s abundance of resolve and character.

So let’s see what the Rangers have to say in Game 5 at the Garden on Friday before we bum-rush them all out of town on a rail, shall we?

They didn’t get to the Cup final last year by being weak-willed. They didn’t record 53 wins and 113 points by lacking talent. They didn’t win the Presidents’ Trophy by lacking heart.

And the Rangers haven’t dedicated the last 11 months of their lives to the singular declared mission to right last June’s wrong just so they could curl up in the fetal position when confronted by clear and present danger. They won’t do that.

But.

(You knew that with the Blueshirts down 3-1 to the Caps while having scored a sum of five goals in the series and with only one player having scored in the last 164:20, there’d be a “but,” didn’t you?)

But they have to be better, from the top down.

But if Alain Vigneault in his heart of hearts truly believes what he said on a conference call Thursday afternoon when he asserted “our team is playing well,” then the coach is living in an alternate universe.

Because the Rangers aren’t playing well enough on a consistent basis. They’ve played well in spurts, sometimes extended ones. But they’re not playing nearly as well as the Capitals and they haven’t played remotely close to well enough to win 16 games in the playoffs. It’s not just their failure to finish. That’s the symptom, not the illness.

The Rangers are making critical mistakes under pressure. Look at the way they lost Game 1 in the final 1.3 seconds. That set the pattern. Look at the sequence on which the Caps scored the only goal of Game 3. Look at the turnovers in Game 4.

Critical blunders at critical times. Other than that, the series has gone along just fine. And other than that, Mrs. Lincoln had a wonderful time at the show, she would want you to know.

Loyalty is great when it is earned. But things haven’t exactly been working. Nobody has dibs on ice time or a particular assignment. The Stanley Cup can’t be won on credit and neither can Game 5.

Last year after the Rangers lost the first three games of the final to the Kings, Vigneault not only moved Brad Richards out of a top-nine spot, he moved the center to left wing on the fourth line for Game 4 and then for much of Game 5. But Richards had hit a wall. So the coach made a move in which he demoted a decorated, veteran leader.

Now Vigneault has the tough call to make on Marty St. Louis, who aside from the nifty feed that set up Brassard for the Rangers’ Game 4 goal, just isn’t adding anything to the top line or on the first power-play unit.

The Rangers are not blessed with an abundance of depth up front, and if either J.T. Miller or Kevin Hayes were to switch places with St. Louis, the Rangers would lack a bit in defensive awareness. But Vigneault can’t let that stop him from shaking it up. The Blueshirts need to muscle up a bit on top and make life harder for Washington.

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of France St. Louis’ passing. This cannot be an easy time for her son for a variety of reasons. But while the coach has an obligation to be respectful of this future Hall of Famer, as do we all, Vigneault has to see things as they are, not as he would wish for them to be.

Miller is playing in straight lines, he’s been aggressive and he’s been creative. Indeed, his feed nearly set up Tanner Glass for the tying goal with about 5:30 to go in the third period Wednesday. He would add size and jam to the Nash-Brassard combination.

If that means St. Louis on the fourth line, then so be it, but Vigneault could also shift St. Louis onto the right on a third line with Dom Moore, a player with whom he has a shared productive history, and as recently as last year’s playoffs.

The Rangers need to try to win this game, not avoid losing it. They have to be aggressive, they have to pressure the Capitals, and they have to use their speed to disrupt even if the wheels in motion aren’t creating enough scoring chances. There has to be desperation in front of Braden Holtby that forces the goaltender to make second and — what a concept — third saves.

Oh, and if the Rangers get one goal, then Henrik Lundqvist has to find the way to make it stand up, the way he did in the 1-0 clincher against Montreal last year.

Of course that was then and this is now. But the Rangers created an identity for themselves last spring. That was the genesis of 2014-15.

It started with a vow back in September at camp, or maybe last June in LA. The Rangers have to be better, every one of them does, but it would be stunning if this is not their best game of the playoffs.

Until they say it, it isn’t over. And it is impossible to believe those words would ever come out of the Rangers’ mouths.