Rangers at Sabres
The New York Rangers are struggling to maintain any consistency, but they have a favorable upcoming schedule, beginning with Thursday's road game against the league-worst Buffalo Sabres. New York, which is 5-6-0 over its last 11 contests, will follow the matchup with a nine-game homestand that will carry the team into Christmas. "If we are going to get some traction and get past that .500 level, we need our top players to play consistently like top players," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.
No game typified the ongoing struggles of the Sabres more than their last one - when they surrendered a goal in the final minute of overtime in a 1-0 road loss in New Jersey. That defeat dropped Buffalo to 1-5-1 in its last seven games - a stretch during which the league's most feeble offense produced eight goals in regulation. “It’s been difficult for us,” Sabres forward Marcus Foligno said. “We know we have to score more than one goal in order to survive in this league and win a game.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG (New York, Buffalo)
ABOUT THE RANGERS (14-14-0): Any talk of a goaltending controversy in New York was squashed when the Rangers on Wednesday signed Henrik Lundqvist to a seven-year contract extension worth nearly $60 million. Lundqvist is not having his best season (8-11-0), and it raised eyebrows when rookie Cam Talbot started the last two games, but team management made a loud statement in rewarding the 2012 Vezina Trophy winner. "Since his arrival in New York in 2005, Henrik has consistently been one of the elite goaltenders in the NHL,” president and general manager Glen Sather said.
ABOUT THE SABRES (6-20-2): Cody Hodgson is the only Buffalo player with more than four goals - Matt Moulson has 10, but only four have come in 15 games since he was acquired from the New York Islanders. Drew Stafford, a former 31-goal scorer who is in the midst of an 11-game drought and has tallied only twice in 28 games, said the team still has time to reverse the offensive malaise. “There’s been situations before where guys have had two or three goals in November and finished the year with 30," Stafford said. "It’s still early, believe it or not.”
OVERTIME
1. Lundqvist, who needs two shutouts to tie Ed Giacomin (49) for the franchise record, blanked the visiting Sabres on Oct. 31.
2. Slow starts are commonplace for the Sabres - they have been outscored 33-6 in the first period.
3. Rangers C Brad Richards is riding a four-game point streak.