Kaapo Kakko can flip his Rangers script

WASHINGTON — One of the more intriguing aspects of the Rangers’ record-setting regular season is that only a select few of their players had career years.That leaves room for growth within the lineup that finished with the NHL’s best record.

There is room for players to restate their cases.There is opportunity to create a new narrative.“I feel that’s the way everyone has to think.

There are guys who are having great seasons already but for myself, I have to think that I can change something in the playoffs and that will make the difference,” Kaapo Kakko told The Post in advance of Friday’s Game 3 against the Capitals.“You don’t look at stats, you need to win four games.

That’s all that matters.“We won the Presidents’ Trophy but if we don’t go far, who cares?”The Rangers did the required by sweeping the opening two at the Garden against their eighth-seeded opponents but did not dominate and did not put on a show of force that would have left the Caps quaking.Instead, Washington was banging on the door at the end of Game 2.

The Blueshirts have some work to do in D.C.this weekend.Kakko has work to do as he completes his fifth season after ping-ponging into his second-overall selection in the 2019 draft.

Five seasons already for the 23-year-old, who is coming up on restricted free agency for the second time in the last three summers, though this time with arbitration rights.That’s for a couple of months from now, though.It’s on hold, though No.

24 can sure increase his value over these next couple of months after coming off a season in which he missed 21 games early and finished with 13 goals and six assists in 61 games.Two years ago, he missed nearly half the year with injuries.

He’s played an NHL total of 300 games with 57 goals and 60 assistsFive years in and in many ways it feels as if Kakko’s career hasn’t really begun.But Kakko’s big-bodied, straight-line, responsible two-way philosophy is built for the playoffs.

Way...