NEW YORK -- He has been having the time of his hockey life, feasting for the first time at the NHL's all-you-can-eat playing time buffet, and unspooling a magical goaltending run that has left his dad giving reporters pinch-me quotes about his son's remarkable backstory: Cam Talbot went unwanted and undrafted, and now he's the late-bloomer emergency starter who has taken the NHL by fire at the age of 27.

Until someone else comes along in the fast-approaching playoffs to eclipse him, Talbot is the man who saved the New York Rangers' season. But the end of the best seven or eight weeks of his career looks near now. And what it could mean for the Rangers isn't really clear.

After a month and a half that Rangers franchise goaltender Henrik Lundqvist spent almost entirely underground declining public comment, working out of sight and entirely apart from the team while healing from the vascular injury in his neck that could've been life-threatening, Lundqvist finally surfaced at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday to meet with reporters before the Rangers' game against Chicago. The King was no longer The Ghost.

Goalie Cam Talbot, once largely ignored, has seen his stock go through the roof. Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports

Lundqvist looked fit and well-rested. He was wearing a sharp blue pinstriped suit. He talked about how he was finally cleared by doctors and eager to return when the Rangers held their next full-speed practice in two days -- all of which means Talbot, the backup who started Wednesday night and certainly wasn't at fault in the Rangers' 1-0 loss, has a week, maybe a little more, before he gets bolted back to the bench despite being the hottest goaltender in the NHL this side of Montreal MVP candidate Carey Price.

"I always knew when Hank came back he's going to get the net," Talbot said after the game. "I'm not going to be disappointed or anything like that. That's just the way it goes when you've got a guy like Hank. He's one of the best in the world. Whenever he's ready to go, he's obviously going to play.

And all of that is true.

But at some point in these coming weeks, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault is going to have a difficult choice to make that would've been preposterous to suggest even two months ago.

It won't happen right when Lundqvist is back -- the starting job is his, there's no doubt about that. Nor will the Rangers put holding onto their Metropolitan Division lead ahead of getting Lundqvist sharp in their final 13 regular-season games for what they hope is their second straight Stanley Cup finals run. The season is about getting Lundqvist ready for the postseason now. His workaholic history suggests if there's a way to be terrific quickly, he'll find it.

But somewhere along the way, Vigneault is going to have to decide how quick a hook he is going to have if Lundqvist falters. And it's not unreasonable to expect that after such a long layoff, Lundqvist might. Then what? Exactly how is Vigneault going to juggle the memory of how terrific Talbot has been lately versus how great Lundqvist has been historically?

Vigneault has answered this way: "I've always felt this group of players, it's about the group. It's not about one guy. We play a team game. We play a smart game with and without the puck. And that has permitted us, I think, to go through that adversity."

Translation: Talbot is the backup. But refusing to give Talbot even a spot start won't be out of the question even if Talbot hasn't quite turned into the Garden's hockey version of Linsanity. (A quick visit to a Garden gift shop Wednesday to ask if they carried Cam Talbot shirts revealed a clerk who said no, there were none. Were Talbot shirts available anywhere else in arena? "No" again was the reply.)