Staal: ‘Dirty’ Preds hit was ‘uncalled for’

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.

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. ➤ 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 Zi

banejad 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 Vi

gneault believes has hampered the center since the All-Star break. Hayes had missed six games with a leg contusion. ➤ Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, recalled following

Ondrej Pavelec’s lowerbody 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 on Sunday following Saturday’s contest.