Sabres at Rangers
The New York Rangers have benefited from back-to-back hat tricks to keep their high-octane offense humming along during a three-game winning streak. With 20 goals posted in their last four outings, the Rangers look to continue their torrid assault on the scoreboard Tuesday when they host the Buffalo Sabres.
After Matt Puempel notched his first career hat trick in a 6-3 win at Arizona on Thursday, Chris Kreider posted his second two days later in a 6-2 rout of Colorado en route to being named the NHL's Second Star of the Week. The 25-year-old Kreider (team-leading 15 goals) has six goals and two assists in his last four outings and also set up a goal in New York's 4-3 loss at Buffalo on Dec. 1. While the Rangers have won nine of 12 to remain in the mix among the heavyweights in the top-heavy Metropolitan Division, Buffalo dropped both ends of a home-and-home series with Boston and six of seven overall (1-4-2) to plummet into the basement of the Atlantic. The Sabres face a tall order to rebound as they are mustering just 2.14 goals per game (29th ranked) ahead of the tilt versus the Rangers (3.41), the NHL's third-highest scoring team.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MSG
ABOUT THE SABRES (13-15-8): Jack Eichel, who scored twice in the third period against New York last month, extended his point streak to three games (two goals, two assists) with a goal in a 3-1 setback to the Bruins on Saturday. Fellow forward Johan Larsson tallied in the first meeting against New York, but returned to Buffalo after spending the weekend in a Boston-area hospital with a dislocated elbow and wrist on Saturday. Josh Gorges was banged up Saturday and missed the following day's practice before returning on Monday, but fellow defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will not make the trip to Madison Square Garden as he instead will visit a doctor in regard to his back injury.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (26-12-1): Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello each set up two of Kreider's goals against the Avalanche, with the former raising his point total to nine (four goals, five assists) in his last six contests while the latter has nine assists during a six-game point streak. Fellow forward Rick Nash, who has been sidelined since Dec. 18 with a groin injury, expressed no issues after participating in Monday's practice. "As soon as he tells me he's good to go and gets cleared by the medical staff, he's playing," coach Alain Vigneault told reporters of the 32-year-old Nash.
OVERTIME
1. New York is 7-for-16 on the power play in the last three games after failing to convert on 12 opportunities with the man advantage in the previous six contests.
2. The Sabres have yielded a power-play goal in four straight games overall and went 0-for-2 on the penalty kill versus the Rangers in the first encounter.
3. Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist, who owns a 9-3-1 mark at home this season, has a 17-11-2 career record versus Buffalo.