Rangers and Matt Rempe set to push back against Capitals agitator Tom Wilson

When Ryan Reaves signed with the Rangers 2 ¹/₂ years ago, the veteran face-puncher memorably declared that he wasn’t there because of Tom Wilson, the infamous Capitals agitator who beat up on the club at the end of the previous season and partially influenced the subsequent front-office turnover.

The reason he was there, Reaves said, was because of what players like Wilson bring to his team.

That philosophy evidently still rings true throughout the halls of the MSG Training Center, where the Blueshirts conducted their first practice of the postseason and Matt Rempe — the organizationally grown rookie enforcer — took reps as if he were slated to play in Game 1 of the first-round series against Wilson and the Capitals on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

“When I was younger, I think there’s this montage of him on YouTube just blowing guys up,” Rempe said of Wilson, who the 6-foot-8 ½ forward gushed over with genuine respect and admiration. “I used to watch that sometimes when I was younger, it got me fired up. I know he’s a really good competitor.”

The rest of the Rangers from that 2021-22 team may not share the same sentiment on Wilson, whose blend of snarl and skill will make him a unique challenge in this series.

But in no way are the 2024 Rangers thinking of that May 3, 2021, incident, when Wilson dangerously pushed his stick down on ex-Blueshirt Pavel Buchnevich’s neck and then manhandled a helmet-less Artemi Panarin to the ice.