Pregame: Rangers Looking to Take Out Frustration on Sabres

The New York Rangers will be hosting the third place Buffalo Sabres tonight at Madison Square Garden in a game that they will look to bounce back after two straight frustrating defeats against the Red Wings and the Blackhawks. Now at .500, the losses are piling up and this team is rapidly sinking. All of the players have been blaming themselves, breaking sticks, and so on, but they need to buckle down and start to get the job done. You can feel bad for yourself to a certain extent, but there is a time that you must actually start to back up your words, something this club has not necessarily done too well this season.

In the last loss in Chicago, the effort was not there, plain and simple. Henrik Lundqvist stood on his head while his mates seemed to play like they did not even care. That is when it makes you wonder if a coach has lost his team already, which is definitely a debatable topic when discussing this team. Anyway, the Blueshirts are in the midst of their worst struggle in quite a few years to start the season and will be in front of a sold out home crowd on a Saturday night in this one. The reason I point this out is because you better believe that the crowd will get on them rather quickly if they start losing and do not display any effort.

Rangers Projected Lineup:

Higgins - Prospal - Gaborik
Avery - Drury - Callahan
Boyle - Anisimov - Kotalik
Brashear - Christensen - Parenteau

Redden - Heikkinen
Del Zotto - Girardi
Staal - Rozsival

Lundqvist

Scratches: Aaron Voros, Enver Lisin, Brandon Dubinsky (broken hand)

Henrik Lundqvist will be in net after having a stellar performance in a 2-1 overtime loss to Chicago on Wednesday. In his past three games, Lundqvist has looked very good but has allowed the odd soft goal in two of the three. Hopefully these past two days gave him a chance to clear his mind of all the built-up frustration that has accumulated over the past week.

Defenseman Ilkka Heikkinen will be playing in place of Matt Gilroy, who was sent down to Hartford earlier this week. Head coach John Tortorella stated that he will be willing to deal with the positional errors as long as Ilkka continues to throw the body around.

Chris Higgins, who has been on a bit of a hot streak, will be on a line with Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal. Vinny and Gaborik have been struggling for the first time all season and will be looking to end their drought in the tilt.

Sabres Projected Lineup:

Connolly - MacArthur - Vanek
Hecht - Kennedy - Pominville
Gerbe - Roy - Stafford
Mair - Ellis - Kaleta

Tallinder - Myers
Rivet - Lydman
Sekera - Montador

Miller

The Sabres are coming off of a win Friday night with Patrick Lalime in net, which keeps them in third place in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers have not played since Wednesday, so they may have an advantage in stamina in the third period, but it all depends on if they use it to their advantage or skate around looking lifeless.

Live game updates available at twitter.com/rangerstribune as usual.
(Images courtesy of AP Photo)