After a series of “maintenance days” with an undisclosed injury, Sean Durzi was sidelined for the Rangers’ 4-1 loss to the Oilers Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.
As a result, head coach Mike Sullivan was forced to change up his defense pairs for the first time this season.
Durzi had skated in all of the previous 14 games on the right side of the Blueshirts’ second pair alongside Marcus Pettersson, who was also traded to New York this past offseason in president and general manager Chris Drury’s attempt to restructure the team’s blue line.
With Durzi unavailable, Braden Schneider was promoted from the third pair to skate next to Pettersson.
On his 24th birthday Sunday, Scott Morrow drew into the Rangers lineup for the first time this season to fill in on the right side of the third pair with Alberts Smits.
After making the season-opening roster out of training camp, Morrow had served as a healthy scratch for the previous 14 games.
“Just view myself as being ready to go,” Morrow told The Post on Sunday morning before logging 15:02 of ice time and recording an assist on the Rangers’ lone goal. “I’m in good physical condition and just excited to get in there.”
Asked if there was any frustration with his extended time in the press box, Morrow said he understood the situation. He pointed to the faith the Rangers showed in him by putting him on the roster out of training camp, and he expressed a desire to reward the organization’s belief in him when he gets the chance.
“Just got to have patience and know that whenever an opportunity comes you just got to be ready to take advantage of it,” he said. “I’m here for a reason. It’s going to happen at some point, so just got to stay ready. Not really stress out about things game to game, but look at the big picture and realize that if I play well, things will work out.”
Head coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged Durzi was working through some sort of injury the past couple of weeks. The Rangers haven’t labeled his injury as lower body or upper body yet.
In the 5-2 win over the Ducks, however, Durzi took a puck off the hand while trying to block a shot.
The 28-year-old Durzi has collected two goals and three assists through his first 14 games as a Ranger.
Dylan Garand stopped 21 of the 24 shots he faced in his 10th consecutive appearance in net for the Rangers, dating to when the rookie goalie relieved Igor Shesterkin following his season-ending injury against the Capitals.
The Rangers registered a single-game season-high faceoff win percentage of 64 against Edmonton on Sunday night. Will Cuylle (2-for-2) and Luke Glendening (5-for-5) led the way, and Noah Laba (7-for-10), Mika Zibanejad (8-for-13) and J.T. Miller (10-for-19) rounded out the Rangers’ most effective draw takers.
