Sabres vs Rangers Preview

The Sabres continue their battle for a playoff spot tonight against the New York Rangers at First Niagara Center which will feature Jhonas Enroth vs Henrik Lunquist in another intense showdown. The last meeting between these two was at MSG which ended in a 3-2 shoot out loss for the Sabres. This time around the standings are quite a bit different, The Rangers now stand at 8th place with 28 points but the Sabres have dropped a lot now down to 21 points and 7 points out of the playoffs. As the Rangers are the competition for the Sabres in order to get to the playoffs tonight will be a huge game which will include hard nosed defense and tough physical play from both sides. Tyler Ennis will not play tonight due to a upper body injury he received against the Flyers last Sunday in Philadelphia. Matt Flynn has continued to impress the Sabres with 2 goals in the last 2 games which was expected as he has 16 goals and 16 assists totaling 32 points. The key matchup for tonight is the red hot Center for the Rangers Brad Richards vs the Sabres defense. Richards has 4 goals in the past week before only having 2 in 15 games. The Sabres defense has struggled this year but if they want to get to the playoffs, they will have to be more disciplined and physical in their own zone. The Sabres will be looking to see more out of winger Drew Stafford tonight who only has 2 goals and 8 assists on the season. Its not that Stafford hasn't had the opportunities to score because he has but the problem is finishing and that's why he only has 2 goals he has been at the net all year but just can't seem to fit the puck behind the goalie. The problem could be that he is taking to long to make a decision on where he wants to put the puck or that he just simply is being robbed by the goaltender but either way, the average 20 goal scorer a year needs to get going if the Sabres want to win and if he wants a job in Buffalo. The game kicks off in Buffalo at 7 PM on MSG Network.