Adam Fox had just returned to his top form when a déjà vu knee-on-knee hit with Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs aggravated the injury he sustained earlier in the season and caused a mild MCL strain, The Post has learned. 

To say it was a complete tear would be inaccurate, but anyone with eyes could see the 26-year-old defenseman was hindered for a majority of the Rangers’ run to the Eastern Conference Final.  

After scoring seven goals and dishing 15 assists in the final 18 games of the regular season, Fox was limited to just eight assists in 16 playoff contests.

The right-knee injury, aggravated in Game 4 of Round 1, kept Fox off the ice for a few days between the Blueshirts’ first- and second-round series for what the team described as “maintenance” purposes.

He opted not to skate one more time later in the postseason during an optional practice after they defeated the Hurricanes in Round 2, but otherwise participated in a majority of on-ice team activities.

Notable symptoms of a stretched MCL include swelling, as well as locking or catching of the knee when it’s moved, but it doesn’t usually require surgery.

Fox endured the most significant injury of his four seasons in the NHL after colliding knee-on-knee with Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho on Nov. 2.

The Rangers put Fox on injured reserve the next day, which sidelined the 2021 Norris Trophy-winner for 10 games.

The recovery process was smooth and Fox was able to return at the exact time he was projected to do so, but it understandably took some time for the Jericho, N.Y., native to get his feel for the game back.

“Missing as much time and as many games as I did, it wasn’t necessarily a natural feel when I came back,” Fox told The Post’s Larry Brooks in April. “I couldn’t really find it right away and when things aren’t going well it has a tendency to trickle, trickle and keep going. But that’s similar to when you do find your groove and it all flows from that. It builds positively.

“I don’t know if there was a specific moment where I recognized that it had come back to me, but it seemed to turn coming out of the All-Star break. It turned for the team, too. That’s when I was able to find that rhythm and play the way I want.”

By the time the playoffs rolled around, Fox was near the top of his game and it reflected in the Rangers’ game.

The top power-play unit, which Fox quarterbacks, was proving capable of dominating any team on any given night. Defensively, the Blueshirts’ back end was largely sound and structured.

Once he was dangerously clipped by Jensen’s knee in the first period of Game 4, however, Fox struggled to move and handle the puck as well as he usually does. He actually remained in that game, even joining the subsequent power play at one point, before going on to appear in all of the Rangers’ next 12 postseason contests.

As the playoffs progressed and the series got more physical, he wasn’t able to make the impact the Rangers needed him to.

Fox, entering the third season of his seven-year, $66.5 million deal with the Rangers, is a driver of so much of what the team does well.

With him operating at less than 100 percent paired with other star players’ struggles and the mightiness of the Panthers, the results — a six-game loss in the Eastern Conference Final — were as expected.