The Rangers, who are expected to be impacted by the salary cap for the rest of the season, were forced to play shorthanded for a second straight game, Thursday night against the Senators, after the NHL denied their emergency recall.

According to a league source, the NHL found that the Rangers essentially created the emergency recall situation.

Due to Ryan Lindgren’s upper-body injury and K’Andre Miller’s three-game suspension for the spitting match penalty he earned against the Kings on Sunday, the Rangers were in a roster emergency before they traded for Patrick Kane.

At that time, they had enough cap space to make a regular recall.

But because the Rangers addressed the roster emergency by adding Kane and, as a result, used all their cap space, the league decided that the club voluntarily put itself in the man-short situation. Due to their current cap situation, the Rangers won’t be able to make any regular recalls from AHL Hartford for the rest of the season. They only will be able to summon help from Hartford under emergency protocols.

It is believed that the Rangers won’t be able to add another player until Lindgren is healthy or Miller returns from his suspension, whichever comes first. Even then, they’ll have to play one game a man short before they can call up a player making $850,000 or less under the emergency rule. That removes Zac Jones and his $925,000 cap hit as an option.

After Tyler Motte exited the 5-3 loss to the Senators on Thursday due to a high hit from Ottawa’s Austin Watson, another wrinkle was added to the equation. If Motte is unable to play Saturday at Boston, the Rangers could be two men short. It’s unclear if the NHL will consider that the first game of an emergency situation, or if the Rangers must wait until Miller or Lindgren returns.

“Honestly, the players didn’t mind it,” head coach Gerard Gallant said of his team skating a man down Wednesday night in a 3-2 overtime win in Philadelphia. “There was nobody coming back to the bench gassed. I think they really enjoyed it.”

The concern now is how heavy the defense corps’ workload has been in recent games. Fox led the Rangers with 29:34 of ice time Thursday night, while also logging 28:25 at Philadelphia and 25:57 against the Kings. Trouba was right there on Thursday, skating for 26:19 against Ottawa after logging 24:24 against the Flyers and 29:01 versus Los Angeles.

Lindgren’s injury and Miller’s suspension somewhat complicated the Rangers’ position, but the organization had to take certain steps in order to acquire Kane. Whether or not it was all worth it is yet to be seen.

Jaroslav Halak stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced Thursday in his 18th start of the season.

The Rangers are set to travel to Boston on Friday before they take on the NHL-leading Bruins in a Saturday matinee at TD Garden.