Game 50
Buffalo Sabres (13-29-7) vs. New York Rangers (25-18-6)
Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY
TV: MSG
Radio: WGR 550
SB Nation Rangers Blog: Blueshirt Banter
Know Your Opponent
New York Rangers
Record: (25-18-6) | 56 PTS
Division Ranking: 5th in East Division
PP: 11th (21.3%)
PK: 6th (83.9%)
1. One More Time With Feeling
For the eighth and final time this season, the Buffalo Sabres will match up with the New York Rangers.
While New York continues to claw away at a playoff spot, they have seen success against the Sabres this season.
In seven previous games this season, New York holds a record of 5-2.
The Rangers also defeated the Sabres last game on April 25, 6-3.
2. Looking To Stay Hot
With the season rapidly coming to a close, Sam Reinhart finds himself to be white hot once more.
In his last five games, Reinhart has tallied seven points. Six of those points have come in the form of a goal.
While others have struggled on-and-off, Reinhart has pushed his goal total to 21 this season and is eclipsing his career-high of 25 goals in 2017-18.
3. Finding The Sweet Spot
While the Buffalo Sabres have struggled in the win column, the on-ice product has been much better over the last few weeks.
Last game against the Rangers felt like a microcosm of the bigger development. While Buffalo found themselves coming up short at the end of the game, it never truly felt like the Sabres were out of the game.
The offense has a new found life and the defense certainly seems to have improved under Don Granato.
While the season starts wrapping up here shortly, it will be interesting to see if Buffalo can keep their development moving forward against the Rangers.
Projected Lineups
Buffalo Sabres
Forwards
Jeff Skinner – Sam Reinhart – Victor Olofsson
Rasmus Asplund – Casey Mittelstadt – Tage Thompson
Anders Bjork – Dylan Cozens – Arttu Ruotsalainen
Tobias Rieder – Riley Sheahan – Drake Caggiula
Defense
Mattias Samuelsson – Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin – Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson – Colin Miller
Starter: Dustin Tokarski
New York Rangers
Forwards
Alexis LaFreniere – Mika Zibanejad – Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin – Ryan Strome – Colin Blackwell
Chris Kreider – Filip Chytil – Kaapo Kakko
Brett Howden – Kevin Rooney – Vitali Kravtsov
Defense
Libor Hajek – Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller – Brendan Smith
Ryan Lindgren – Zac Jones
Starter: Igor Shesterkin