Captain’s isn’t only voice in locker room

THERE is the leadership group of the Rangers that you so often hear referenced by the players. But there also is the team leader, and his name is Ryan McDonagh — who, three full years into his captaincy, has grown into and fully embraced the role on and off the ice.

“I think every year Mac has become more comfortable and has accepted more responsibility as captain,” Henrik Lundqvist told The Post after the Ra n ge rs skated at the Garden on Wednesday in advance of Thursday’s Game 4 against the Senators. “It’s obvious how he conducts himself with us and in the games. “It’s good to see.” The Blueshirts remain one game down in the conference semis — or is this the crossover final? — even as they’ve led for 104 minutes and trailed for just 4:11 through the first three games. The series naturally has become more contentious as it has developed, featuring more skirmishes and more physical confrontations.

More chirping, too, as evidenced by one Game 3 exchange between the often yappy Tanner Glass andthe generally quiet Kyle Turris late in the first period — when the two locked eyes, words were traded, the Ottawa center told No. 15, “You were in the minors,” and the Rangers winger responded, “But I’m here now, buddy!”

McDonagh always has made an impact with his legs, his speed, and his ability to skate out of trouble and beat forecheckers. But in these playoffs, No. 27 has made an impact with his own physical play. He has been mean in front of Lundqvist and punishing in the corners. That isn’t just by happenstance.

“I think I took it upon myself to impose my will physically,” McDonagh told The Post. “It’s different than in the regular season, where you’re playing a different team every night. In the playoffs, everything you do matters and carries over from one game to the next.

“Hits early have an impact later in a series. They take their toll. Guys remember.”

McDonagh was fierce against the Canadiens. He has been no less engaged in this round — late in the second period of Saturday’s Game 2, manhandling and throwing Erik Karlsson down into the corner boards.

“When you have an opportunity to finish a hit, you take it,” McDonagh said. “It’s not about message-sending, it’s about making an impact.”

The Rangers have 1,122 games of combined playoff experience on the roster, but, for the first time since the Lundqvist Era began in 2005-06, they’re in the playoffs without a past Stanley Cup winner in the room. (Antti Raanta was technically a member of the 2015 champion Blackhawks, but was not with the club at the end and his name is not on the Cup.)

So it is leadership-by-committee in the room, even as McDonagh acknowledged he does speak up more now than he might have in the past.

“When there is something necessary to be said, I have no problem saying it, but it’s certainly not only me,” he said. “We’ve made it a priority this year to hold the whole group accountable.

“One of my messages is to make sure that we don’t have any regrets, that we bring everything we have onto the ice, that we have the right focus and that everybody is locked in.”

Lundqvist said that the room is absent a caste system and that talking — or leading — is not limited to the letter-wearers.

“You don’t have to be a star player to talk in this room,” said The King, who is scheduled to make his 126th consecutive playoff start in Game 4, just 68 shy of the record established by Martin Brodeur on the other side of the Hudson. “It doesn’t matter who you are if you have something to contribute.”

That notion was seconded by McDonagh, who has five points and is seventh in the league in playoff ice time at 27:33 per game, which exceeds his career high of 26:49 he established in 2012, then matched in 2014.

“It’s something you need to build up over the course of the season, but everyone here has a voice,” the captain said. “It’s not always easy to speak up, but there are no egos in this room. Everyone’s pulling for one another. It’s only about winning.

“And talking … you have to do it on the ice. [Tuesday] night was one of our quietest locker rooms going into a game all playoffs. You could sense that nothing more needed to be said and that we were where we needed to be.

“I’m the captain, but it’s not on one guy here. We’re a team.”