Patrick Kane thought it was a broken jaw when he watched as Ryan Lindgren took a blocked shot off the side of his face during overtime of the Rangers’ shootout loss to the Sabres on Monday.

The star wing thought the Rangers would lose Lindgren, who’d just returned from a shoulder injury. But then Kane saw the defenseman emerge from the locker room, and he thought it was “crazy.”

“I’ve only played with him a couple games, and you just kind of hear how important he is to the team and what he means to the organization and just the city,” Kane said Wednesday. “You never want to see that happen, but just kind of exemplifies the way that he is as a person, the way that he plays.”

Earlier that night, Lindgren was honored with the Rangers’ Steven McDonald Award, voted on by the fans.

On Wednesday, the Rangers announced that teammates had voted Lindgren the winner of the Players’ Player Award, given annually since 1958-59 to the player who “best exemplifies what it means to be a team player,” the club said in a release.

“It doesn’t shock me at all,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said Wednesday. “Well-deserved, and the guys love [Lindgren] on our team. Coaches love him, too. He does a good job.”

Lindgren missed 17 of 18 games between late February and early April due to the shoulder injury, but since returning, he has skated at least 17:49 in three of the last four games.

He practiced as usual Wednesday and told The Post that his face is fine, reiterating that the puck “mostly grazed” his face.

“It’s a little swollen, a little sore,” Lindgren said, “but yeah, not as bad as it could’ve been.”

————————————————————————

The Rangers’ status as the lower seed in their first-round series was determined Tuesday, but their opponent won’t be known until Thursday.

If the Hurricanes (111 points) defeat the Panthers, then Carolina would win the Metropolitan Division title and the Rangers would face the Devils (110 points).

But if the Hurricanes lose — in regulation, overtime or a shootout — and the Devils defeat the Capitals, that would flip the standings and New Jersey would emerge as the division’s top seed. The Rangers would then face Carolina, since the Devils hold the tiebreaker for regulation wins.

The Devils would also win the division if they lose in overtime or a shootout and the Hurricanes lose in regulation, creating a tie at 111 points.

Even though the Rangers’ game Thursday against the Maple Leafs doesn’t impact the standings, Gallant said it “doesn’t change a thing,” though Lindgren acknowledged “it’s gonna be a little tough.”

“We know where we’re gonna be at in the standings, but you just gotta go into tomorrow and just try to make sure that you’re still doing the good habits and playing the right way,” Lindgren said. “We don’t want to get away from our game, and it’s just a tune-up game, getting ready for Game 1 next week.”

Mika Zibanejad was voted as the team’s Most Valuable Player by reporters who cover the Rangers.

Center Filip Chytil was selected by beat writers as the winner of the John Halligan Good Guy Award for his cooperation with reporters.