The Rangers continue their home stand tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, which makes it two in a row against two of the top pure scorers in the league. The Blueshirts kept Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs at bay, for the most part, and the Sabres are significantly worse than the Leafs.
While the Sabres are not necessarily one of those teams ahead of the Rangers in the standings today, they were at the bye week. So there’s progress by the Rangers in that short span. Remember though, the Rangers need about 1.5 points per game to even sniff 98 points and a potential playoff spot. Not impossible, but highly improbable.
Oh, and Jimmy Vesey returns to MSG tonight.
Sabres Lines
Jimmy Vesey-Jack Eichel-Sam Reinhart
Conor Sheary-Marcus Johansson-Michael Frolik
Zemgus Girgenssons-Johan Larsson-Scott Wilson
Jeff Skinner-Cutis Lazar-Evan Rodrigues
Brandon Montour-Rasmus Ristolainen
Jake McCabe-Henri Jokiharju
Lawrence Pilut-Colin Miller
PP1: Reinhart-Johansson-Skinner-Eichel-Ristolainen
PP2: Vesey-Rodrigues-Sheary-Montour-Miller
Carter Hutton gets the start.
Rangers Lines (best guess)
Chris Kreider–Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin–Filip Chytil–Jesper Fast
Phil Di Giuseppe-Ryan Strome–Kaapo Kakko
Brett Howden–Greg McKegg-Brendan Lemieux
Brady Skjei–Adam Fox
Ryan Lindgren–Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal–Tony DeAngelo
PP1: Panarin-Zibanejad-Strome-Kreider-DeAngelo
PP2: Kakko-Buchnevich-Lemieux/Chytil-Trouba-Fox
PK Forwards: Fast, Kreider, Strome, Howden, Lemieux, McKegg
PK Defense: Skjei, Trouba, Staal, Smith, Lindgren
Alex Georgiev gets the start.
Scratches: Igor Shesterkin (healthy), Micheal Haley (healthy), Brendan Smith (healthy)
Crazy Prediction: Ten goals combined for both teams.
Game time is 7pm.
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