RANGERS VS SABRES GAME DAY PREVIEW 11/4

Rangers Return Home to Host Sabres at the Garden

New York Rangers (5-7-1) vs Buffalo Sabres (7-5-2)

MAdison Square Garden, NYC TONIGHT 7:00 PM

TV: MSG, MSGB RADIO: ESPN-NY 98.7 FM

The Rangers come into tonight's contest returning home after a 4 game road trip in which the Rangers went 2-2-0. Starting off in Chicago with a 4-1 loss, then to Los Angeles a 4-3 Loss, the Rangers were able to salvage the road trip with 2 shootout victories, 4-3 in San Jose and 3-2 in Anaheim. In their last five the Rangers have a record of 3-2-0 including the road trip and a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers at MSG on October 23.

Pavel Buchnevich will return to the lineup tonight after a 2 game benching. Coach Quinn is hoping that Buchnevich is "Pissed Off" and ready to "Do Something about it". Buchnevich should be replacing Cody McLeod on the 4th line alongside center Filip Chytil and fellow winger Vinny Lettieri. Yesterday at practice he replaced Ryan Spooner who was on a "maintenance day" during yesterday's drills.

The Rangers (5-7-1) will be playing in front of their home fans for the first time since Oct. 23, when they beat the Florida Panthers 5-2.

Henrik Ludqvist is expected to get the start after sitting the final road game against Anaheimin favor of backup Alexandar Georgiev who picked up the shootout win against the Ducks. Lundqvist earned the win in his most recent appearance Tuesday night, when he recorded 31 saves as the Rangers beat the Sharks 4-3.

This is the second of three meetings between the Rangers and Buffalo. The Sabres won the first contest of the season at MSG on October 6 by the score of 3-1.  Sabres goaltender Carton Hutton made 43 saves to thwart the Rangers offense in the game.

The Sabres come into tonight's game playing the second game of a back-to-back set. Last night Buffalo scored the most goals that they have in a game in almost a decade downing the Ottawa Senators 9-2 at home marking the first time they have scored 9 or more goals in a game since 2009.

After backup Linus Ullmark earned the win Saturday, Carter Hutton is likely to get the start against New York.

Hutton is 4-0-0 with a 1.35 goals-against average and .960 save percentage in five appearances against the Rangers. Lundqvist is 20-13-2, 2.35, .919 in 36 games lifetime against the Sabres.

Practice Notes, Lineup from Saturday's Practice
Both Marc Staal and Ryan Spooner took maintenance days.

Forwards:
Namestnikov-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Kreider-Hayes-Buchnevich(for Spooner)
Vesey-Howden-Fast
McLeod-Chytil-Lettieri

Defense:
Skjei-DeAngelo
Claesson(for Staal)-Pionk
Smith-Shattenkirk

RANGERS ALL-TIME RECORD vs SABRES
Overall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73-77-25-5 (176 pts)
Home Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-10-15-3 (100 pts)
Road Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-46-10-2 (80 pts)
Goals For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Goals Against. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Shutouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, last – 3/14/2015 (2-0; Skapski)
Last Ranger Win at MSG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/24/2018 (5-1)
Last Ranger Win at Buffalo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/1/2018 (3-2, OT)
*NHL Winter Classic*
Last Sabre Win at MSG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/6/2018 (3-1)
Last Sabre Win at Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/1/2016 (4-3)