Much like the speed and pace of playoff hockey, the grit and physicality required to compete in the postseason has to become habitual early. 

That has been Peter Laviolette’s mantra coming into his first training camp as head coach of the Rangers. 

The notion that the Rangers lack the necessary sandpaper to hang with Stanley Cup contenders has hovered over the club since even before Laviolette stood behind the Capitals bench during the infamous Tom Wilson debacle on May 3, 2021. 

Between the precedent Laviolette is challenging the team to set and the new system he’s installing, however, the Rangers should have a changed outlook on how to maintain a physical presence from Game 1 to Game 82, and through the postseason. 

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity to the way we want to play,” Chris Kreider told The Post before the Rangers took on the Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday night. “To take away time and space and put ourselves in a position where you’re moving your feet and potentially forcing a turnover. Physicality for physicality’s sake doesn’t work at the NHL level. It’s working smart and finishing a check to leave a guy on the outside or not allowing him to jump into the inside and jump up ice or separate him from the puck. 

“I think the way that they want us to play, there will be opportunities for that. The way they want to forecheck, the way they want our D to pinch at certain times — without saying too much about it — there’s opportunity.” 

The Islanders, coincidentally, played a role in the Rangers’ aggressive pursuit of hard-nosed players two years ago.

At the end of the 2021-22 season, the Rangers went 0-3 against the Isles and were outscored 13-1 as their cross-state rival had their way with them in all areas of the ice. 

And in the aftermath of Wilson’s manhandling of Artemi Panarin and former Ranger Pavel Buchnevich a few days later, the Rangers brought in Barclay Goodrow, Ryan Reaves and Sammy Blais that offseason. 

Of course, only Goodrow remains on the Rangers roster heading into the 2023-24 season, which just goes to show that personnel doesn’t always make a difference. 

If you ask Laviolette, everybody has that snarl inside of them.

Regardless of a player’s size or strength, he said, everyone can simply compete hard. 

“I think it comes into practice and they compete against each other,” Laviolette said of how he as a coach can encourage that tenacity. “You always have two colored jerseys on the ice. And you try to set it up in scenarios where they’re competing hard against each other inside of the drills that we’re doing. With that, I think habits start to form and that becomes almost like muscle memory on how we’re going to compete.” 

Kreider noted that the style of Laviolette’s system is designed to give players opportunities to be physical. 

The forecheck, in particular, facilitates situations to close in on opposing players.

There are also scenarios down low, in terms of reloading and possessing the puck, that create battle situations. 

Teams can’t just say they’re going to be physical for a game, Kreider said, it’s more about playing smart. 

“There’s definitely a mindset that accompanies playing like that and the commitment to that,” Kreider said. “A big part of it is putting yourself in situations to be physical and to get into battles.

“The easiest way to do that is to learn the systems, not necessarily thinking, but acting, reacting and playing.”