Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Rangers vs. Sabres Preview


Tonight the New York Rangers (21-20-5) host the Buffalo Sabres (19-18-6) at MSG. Chris Drury will face his former team for the first time. This is the first meeting between these teams since the Sabres eliminated the Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Drury scored the biggest goal of the series with 8 seconds left in regulation in Game 5, preventing New York from taking a 3-2 series lead. After ending a five-game losing streak in their previous game, the Rangers lost 4-1 at Pittsburgh on Monday despite registering 44 shots. The Sabres have scored 124 goals in 43 games, a huge drop-off from last season when they finished with a league-best 308. That lack of offense has become more apparent during the current nine-game skid, their longest stretch without a victory since a 12-game winless streak during the 2002-03 season. They have scored 15 goals in their last nine contests. For a full preview visit Yahoo! Sports.

...man I thought we were playing poorly. Buffalo is awful right now.

...while the headline for this game is Drury facing his former team, the real story is that the Rangers need a win and need one now.

...the Rangers have five games before the All-Star break. They need to go 4-1 to have any momentum going into the end of the season.

...while Buffalo has been struggling, the Rangers can't win if they don't score and with Ryan Miller in goal we might have a tough time scoring tonight. I think we all remember how well he played against us in the playoffs last year.

...I'll have more on tonight's lineup later.

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