The immediate effect of the NHL’s admission of guilt in blowing the offside call that negated the Sabres’ apparent 2-2 tying goal with 56.2 seconds remaining in the third period of Friday night’s match in Buffalo was to secure two points for the Rangers.

But head coach Gerard Gallant had an interesting observation about potential future ramifications of the NHL’s official stance on the play that seemed to needlessly complicate what had appeared a rather straight forward call that Rasmus Dahlin had failed to clear the zone before Victor Olofsson touched the puck.

The league, though, apparently belatedly declared that the Sabres did not have “possession” before Dahlin was able to tag up. The rule, though, calls for an offside if, “… any member of the attacking team touches the puck …”

The situation room reviews calls otherwise reserved for a coach’s challenge on a play occurring in the final minute of the third period or during overtime.

“Personally, myself, I still think it was the right call. I don’t understand the possession part of it, so in my opinion, it’s offside,” Gallant said before the Rangers’ 1-0 defeat to the Predators at the Garden on Sunday. “When you get that picture of the puck over the line, the guy with the puck almost on his stick and their guy’s still over the line, to me it’s offside.

“But again, they’re touchy situations and I know one thing as a coach, you’re going to have a real tough time making that call, because if there was more than one minute [remaining in the game] we’d have to challenge that, and if we challenge that and it goes to 2-2 and we’re shorthanded, that’s a tough, tough call.

“Obviously it wasn’t just the coaches that didn’t know,” he said. “If we’re going to have to take a penalty on that [for an incorrect challenge], it’s going to be real tough.”

Libor Hajek, who had been a healthy scratch for all 21 of the games he’d been with the varsity this season, dressed for the first time when Nils Lundkvist was unavailable because of a non-COVID related illness.

The 23-year-old Czech, who played five games for the AHL Wolf Pack from Nov. 13-21, handled himself with aplomb in getting 12:53 of ice time while primarily paired on the left with Patrik Nemeth.

Interestingly, while Lundkvist rarely, if ever, gets on the ice over the final 10-12 minutes of a tight game, Hajek got a pair of shifts worth 2:04 over the final 7:18.

“That’s not an easy situation, I don’t think anybody really knows what’s it’s like to be in the situation he was in, not playing that long from the beginning of the year,” said Jacob Trouba. “He’s a great teammate, he handled it like a true professional and it’s great to see him get his chance in the lineup.

“I thought he made some great breakout passes. I thought he played a great game.”

Perhaps the fourth time in as many starts since Igor Shesterkin went down early in the third period of the Dec. 10 match at the Garden against San Jose, Alex Georgiev was the Rangers’ best player. No 40, beaten only on a Philip Tomasino drive through traffic while facing 24 shots. Georgiev has recorded a .973 save percentage and a 1.42 GAA in 253:18 of work in the interim.

Shesterkin, suspected to have suffered a groin injury, continues to do his rehab work. He joined the morning skate in progress and got into the net for some light drills following the formal portion of the club’s work.

“Everything is going according to plan,” said Gallant. “The trainers will tell me when he’s ready.”