Brett Berard’s Rangers start paused by upper-body injury

Brett Berard was sidelined with an upper-body injury in the Rangers matchup with the Devils on Monday night, just four games into his NHL career.

The 22-year-old wing was barreled into the corner boards by Canadiens forward Kirby Dach in the third period of the Blueshirts’ 4-3 win over Montreal on Saturday afternoon. Favoring his right arm/side as he got up to his skates, Berard skated off to the bench for a moment before he retreated to the locker room.

It was not enough to keep Berard from finishing the game, however, as the Rangers rookie returned for two more shifts.

Berard notched a goal and an assist through four games, totaling nine shots on goal, five hits and two blocks.

With Berard unavailable, Reilly Smith drew back into the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch for the first time since arriving in New York. The veteran forward slotted next to the players he’s skated with in 16 of his 22 games this season: Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad.

Will Cuylle was bumped from the top line to fill in for Berard on the left wing of Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko.

That pushed Alexis Lafreniere up to the right of Artemi Panarin and Filip Chytil, reuniting the red-hot line the Rangers started last season with before the Czech center went down.

In addition to the lineup changes made due to the injury, head coach Peter Laviolette made a personnel switch.

Jimmy Vesey was a healthy scratch for the first time this season, after he missed the first 10 games of the season on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury.

Skating on the fourth line since his return, Vesey has chipped in two goals and an assist.

As a result, Jonny Brodzinski replaced Vesey on the right wing of the fourth unit alongside Sam Carrick and Adam Edstrom.