Marc Staal, who practiced Friday for the first time since sustaining a cervical injury midway through the second period at Nashville on Feb. 3, was direct in assessing the Alexei Emelin hit that sent him to injured reserve.
“I think I put myself in a vulnerable position, but it was a dirty follow-through, whether it was legal or not,” Staal told The Post. “I was going into the corner, and when I lost my edge and started to stumble, I knew I was in trouble.
“But for him to use his elbow to drive my head into the boards was uncalled for. There is no reason for that.”
Uncalled for and uncalled, with Emelin escaping without a penalty on the play that ended Staal’s night at 10:49 of the second period of the Rangers’ 5-2 defeat. Less than 2 minutes later — 1:52, to be exact — the Predators’ Filip Forsberg was not whistled for his reverse elbow/forearm to Jimmy Vesey’s face that concussed the winger, though he later was suspended three games for the blow.
“No comment,” Staal said when asked about the lack of calls on the plays. “I’ll leave that to someone else.”
Staal, who is targeting Thursday’s match at Montreal for a return, said he passed the NHL concussion tests administered immediately after the hit, but stayed off the ice the remainder of the match because of “[his] history” that includes three previous concussions as a Ranger.
“We decided better safe than sorry,” said Staal, who will miss a seventh straight with Saturday afternoon’s match at Ottawa. “But then starting with the next morning, my neck was really sore for the next week or week-and-a half and I couldn’t really move my head around without having pain.
“But that’s all cleared up. I’ve been skating for the last four or five days and it’s all good. It’s just a matter of conditioning before I get back in.”
Staal, a Ranger since the start of the 2007-08 season, is second in seniority on the club to Henrik Lundqvist. He was asked for his take on the Feb. 8 organizational public decree on prioritizing the future even if at the expense of an eighth straight playoff berth.
“It was a depressing day, and I was sorry I wasn’t here to go through it with the guys,” said the 31-year-old alternate captain. “It’s not something I’ve ever been through. It’s definitely a new experience for me and a lot of guys. We’ll see.”
Pavel Buchnevich, sidelined for seven straight in the aftermath of the concussion he sustained taking what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow to the jaw in a neutral-zone collision with Jake Gardiner late in the second period of the Feb. 1 Garden match against Toronto, will return to the lineup against the Senators. Buchnevich, elevated to the first line with Rick Nash on the left and Mika Zibanejad in the middle for six games before going down, had recorded five points (2-3) in that span.
But as Buchnevich returns, it appears Kevin Hayes will leave the lineup, suffering with a perhaps a lower-back issue that coach Alain Vigneault believes has hampered the center since the All-Star break. Hayes had missed six games with a leg contusion.
“He came back and looked [great] in that [Jan. 25] game at San Jose, but has not skated as well since then,” Vigneault said. “I’d put him at less than 50 percent for [Ottawa].”
Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, recalled following Ondrej Pavelec’s lower-body injury on Feb. 9, had been scheduled to get his first NHL start/action Saturday, Vigneault revealed, but is sick and will be unavailable. The Rangers sent Vinni Lettieri to the AHL Wolf Pack in order to clear a roster spot to recall goaltender Brandon Halverson. Henrik Lundqvist is in line to go back-to-back, with the Flyers at the Garden for a noon start on Sunday following Saturday’s afternoon contest.
“Vinni was the only guy who didn’t need waivers,” Vigneault said. “We needed to open a spot under the 23-man roster limit.”
Paul Carey, scratched the past three games, would replace Hayes in the lineup. Lettieri, who played 9:44 in Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to the Islanders, has one goal and four assists in 16 games over two stints with the Rangers, scoring in his NHL debut in Detroit on Dec. 29.
Vigneault said Ryan McDonagh, who will have missed six straight following the weekend with an unidentified upper-body issue, is “working out.” The Post has been told clubs interested in trading for the captain are aware of the issue, and that it does not have any impact on talks.