TAMPA, Fla. — The Rangers won’t be missing a Step here tonight when they met the Lightning … Step as in Derek Stepan, that is.

For the sophomore center, who missed yesterday’s practice with a bruised left ankle he sustained blocking a Justin Faulk shot with five minutes to go in the Blueshirts’ 5-3 victory in Carolina on Thursday, pronounced himself good to go following the morning skate.

“I’ll be ready to rock,” Stepan said before his team goes after its fifth straight victory and 12th in the last 14 games. “I skated around pretty good this morning; I don’t think there’s anything I won’t be able to do [because of the ankle.]”

That would include blocking shots, a facet of the game that has come to form a large part of the Rangers’ identity over the last two seasons.

“You still have to do the same thing, but maybe not as stupidly as I did in the way I exposed my foot,” said Stepan, who went for X-rays yesterday that came back negative. “You have to get into the shot lanes.

“If you’re in the lane in the proper line and in the right position, you’re not going to get hurt.”

larry.brooks@nypost.com