Pregame: Struggling Blueshirts Seeking Much Needed Win in Buffalo

The New York Rangers are well rested heading into tonight's contest against the Buffalo Sabres, in which they will be looking to prevent themselves from dropping four straight games. Right now, the Blueshirts are in the midst of the toughest struggle they have faced this season, now falling to 12th place in the Eastern Conference and dead last in the Atlantic Division. The Sabres, on the other hand, have been red hot through two months of hockey and carry a record of 16-7-2 into this tilt. Buffalo currently sits in 3rd place in the East with 34 points.

Ilkka Heikkinen and Erik Christensen will each be making their Rangers debuts tonight at HSBC Arena. Heikkinen, who will be wearing number 49, is in the lineup in place of the injured Wade Redden who will not be playing either today or Sunday against the Wings. Christensen was claimed off of waivers this past Wednesday and will be centering the third line with Higgins and Kotalik to the left and right of him.

Rangers Projected Lineup:

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

Staal - Rozsival
Gilroy - Heikkinen
Del Zotto - Girardi

Lundqvist

Scratches: Aaron Voros, Donald Brashear (undisclosed), Wade Redden (upper body), Brandon Dubinsky (broken hand)

Henrik Lundqvist will be in net for the first of back-to-back games this weekend. Henrik has been in a bit of a slump himself, allowing at least one soft goal a night. But really, what do you expect when the all-star netminder is not receiving much help from the players in front of him? Lundqvist is now tied for the most losses this season.

This will be a special game for Ales Kotalik, as he will be up against his former squad that he played with for nine years. It will be the first time Ales enters HSBC as an opponent since being traded to the Oilers, so I am expecting him to give it his all against the Sabres, especially because he was in the dog house on Monday night at the Garden. Kotalik will also return to the point on the powerplay, another one of his duties he had ripped away from him earlier in the week.

Erik Christensen will just need to play hockey right now and not think too much. I believe that if he wants to stay in the lineup he has to use his offensive instincts to take him to the right areas of the ice. Following the guidelines of Torts' system is not overly important just yet. Like I said, Christensen will have Higgins and Kotes on his wings, two players that have not done much over the past month or so.

Sabres Projected Lineup:

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

Tallinder - Myers
Sekera - Rivet
Lydman - Montador

Miller

The Rangers have struggled to score goals lately and there is a good chance that struggle will continue tonight, as Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller has been red hot. Miller leads the NHL in both goals against average and save percentage. In addition to stellar goaltending, the Sabres have the second best penalty kill in the league, and the powerplay is an area of the game that the Blueshirts have been getting their very few goals.

This has the potential to be one of those games where New York is simply shut-down the entire contest and they do not get many chances or even shots on goal. I think if the Rangers want to win this game the effort level is going to have to be much higher than what we have seen. There are no excuses such as fatigue because the team had four days off. If there are any intentions on making the playoffs, things need to be turned around now before it is too late.

Live game updates available at twitter.com/rangerstribune as usual.

(Photos courtesy of Reuters and Getty Images)