WASHINGTON — There is a bull’s-eye on the back of Rick Nash’s sweater. Everyone but everyone can see that. And in Wednesday night’s third period of the Rangers’ series-equalizing Game 4, 4-3 victory at the Garden, everyone could see his No. 61 on the bench.

No goals in the first four games of the playoffs isn’t the shock. The shock is that the Big Easy, who has been less and less of a factor as the series has progressed—eight shots on 16 attempts in Game 1, two shots and three attempts in Game 4—got less ice time in Wednesday’s third period than every Rangers forward other than Taylor Pyatt and Arron Asham.

It was 2:51 in the third for No. 61, which has to be the least amount of ice time a healthy Nash has received in crunch time since he learned the alphabet. He sat while Brian Boyle chewed up 8:48 and the Caps. He sat while coach John Tortorella allotted more ice to Ryane Clowe and Derek Dorsett than to the club’s marquee forward.

There is no second-guessing the coach on this one. The other guys were getting the job done. Nash, not so much. No. 61 has been a power forward operating without his powers; more often than not on the outside, unable to get to the net to snipe against Braden Holtby, the goaltender who has become more vulnerable by the period.

The Capitals are collapsing on Nash, taking away his time and space; showing him no respect. If there’s one asset missing from No. 61’s repertoire, it’s a mean streak. He has been hacked at and “mauled,” all year, as Derek Stepan said yesterday, but he never has snapped back, and he’s yet to bare his teeth in this increasingly nasty series.

Let’s be clear. No one is drawing broad conclusions about Nash’s ability to put a team on his broad shoulders after these four games in which he has appeared disjointed, hesitant and caught in between.

RANGERS PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

It can take time to become acclimated to the postseason. I have made this reference before, but Bryan Trottier scored five goals in his first 42 playoff games. And then he scored 37 goals in his next 75 matches.

Nash knows the job description. He signed up for it. He wanted the Big Stage. He might have been a difference-maker in February and March for the Rangers, but he was hired to make the difference now.

“I don’t think I’m putting more pressure on myself after four games without a goal, but I know what my job is,” Nash told The Post. “I know what I’m expected to do and I know what I expect myself to do.

“Other guys are stepping up, and that’s huge for us. But it’s my responsibility to figure out the way to contribute the way I know I can.”

Tortorella, who also reduced the ice time of the struggling Brad Richards as Game 4 evolved, said yesterday he has no concerns that Nash will be become unduly burdened by his burden.

“There’s no chance of that happening with him,” the coach said. “I can’t see that ever happening; he’s too much of a pro.”

The Rangers beat Washington twice at the Garden because they did get step-up performances from so many support players. They are a threat in this series because they have been the far more disciplined team, earning twice as many power plays as the Capitals (16-8) since the 6:26 mark of the second period of Game 1.

But eventually, a team requires its top scorers to score and its best players to play that way. That’s a roadmap to the Stanley Cup as old as the one the Kenora Thistles took to the chalice in 1907.

It’s on Nash to figure it out. It’s on Nash to shake free. It’s on Nash to do the job he was brought here to do after last year’s 20-game run when people decided Marian Gaborik couldn’t do it.

Now is the time for the bull’s-eye to be visible on the ice in crunch time and not on the bench.