When the Rangers observed that Kaapo Kakko was feeling a bit down and perhaps lonely living life as an 18-year-old in a foreign land while attempting to adapt to the best hockey league in the world, the hierarchy did something about it.

The Blueshirts, The Post has learned, summoned development coach Tuomo Ruutu from his native Finland to New York so he could spend time with his fellow countryman. Ruutu, a 12-year NHL veteran who retired following 2015-16, spent five days last week with the second-overall draft pick. He had been monitoring and interacting with drafted prospects playing in Europe.

Probably not coincidentally, Kakko played his most effective game of his 10-game career in Tuesday’s 4-1 Garden victory over the Lightning, while recording his second goal to boot.

“I think [Ruutu] being here was a very good thing for me,” Kakko told The Post following Thursday’s spirited practice. “We talked about a lot of things, about hockey and about life outside hockey.

“It was good for me to be able to [have conversations] with someone in my own language.”

We tend to forget just how difficult it can be to make the jump from European hockey to the NHL. The rink is different. The game is different. The country is different. The language is different. The culture is different.

That applies whether the player is a late-round selection, an undrafted free agent or the second-overall selection in the draft. Talent does not make one immune to outside forces. Neither does the ambition to be great, and to be great immediately, that No. 24 brings to the rink every day.

“I call my friends and my family at home after games, whether they’re good or bad,” said Kakko, who is living with a family in Westchester. “It’s a good pickup for me. I think I’m getting better all the time.”

Kakko skated with fellow Finnish NHLers Patrik Laine and Mikko Rantanen over the summer but said he didn’t lean on them for advice about making the transition.

“Not much,” he said. “We talked more about how the game is over here.”

The 6-foot-1, 181-pound winger played with confidence against the Lightning, getting 10:19 of five-on-five work primarily with linemates Brett Howden and Brendan Lemieux, plus another 4:24 on the first power-play unit. Kakko scored with the man-advantage at 9:37 of the second period when his right-circle wrister off a neat stutter-step move banked in off defenseman Braydon Coburn’s skate after a right-pad save from Andrei Vasilevskiy.

“It was a lucky goal, but I think it was my best game,” Kakko said. “I had the puck a lot and I shot a lot — I had five shots. When you shoot, sometimes good things happen.

“I played hard, got 15 or 16 minutes [15:32], which was good, and I felt like I was more playing my game,” Kakko said. “I played better and of course the goal was big for me.”

It was, however, more than the goal. Kakko had been a factor well before late in the second period.

“I thought before the goal, he had more from the get-go,” David Quinn said. “I thought there was more jump in his step, I thought he was more physical, engaging in more battles, and as that game was going on he was gaining more confidence with each shift. …

“He wasn’t being hemmed in, in his own zone, I thought he did a real good job a few times on the half-wall in our own end and I thought he was a lot more responsible defensively. Offensively, he owned pucks more and in a short period of time he felt better about his game within the game.

“I think he’ll take [that confidence] into the game [Saturday at Nashville],” the coach said. “I hope he does. But I think he will. He’s a guy, you could even sense it at practice, he looked like he was breathing a little bit easier, wasn’t as tense and putting as much pressure on himself.”

Kakko has dared to be great. He wants to be a difference-maker right now, just the way he was back home, just the way he was for gold medal-winning Team Finland at both the World Juniors and World Championships earlier this year.

“I have played 10 [NHL] games and I know a little more now,” Kakko said. “I can be so much better and I’m going to be better. I think it’s coming.”

And as it does, perhaps the 199th assist of his NHL career should be credited to Ruutu.