Sabres at Rangers preview

SABRES (23-39-12) at RANGERS (32-34-8)
7 p.m. ET; MSG, MSG-B, NHL.TV

The Rangers, 5-10-3 in their past 18 games, have defeated the Sabres twice this season.
New York's top line of Mike Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast has 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) in the past four games. Zibanejad has scored in each of the four games, totaling six goals.
The Rangers are 12 points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with eight games remaining.
Goaltender Linus Ullmark will start for the Sabres, 1-4-1 in their past six games. Buffalo has been eliminated from playoff contention.

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Players to watch

Sabres forward Sam Reinhart has 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists) in 30 games since Jan. 18, when the Sabres lost 4-3 at the Garden.
Rangers rookie defenseman Neal Pionk has eight assists in a six-game point streak.

They said it

"It's about time our leadership group stood up. Now. I challenged them [Thursday]. Definitely wasn't the response I was looking for." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley after a 3-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens
"That line is playing real well. They're complementing one another and it's a real good line right now." -- Rangers coach Alain Vigneault on New York's top line

Sabres projected lineup

Scott Wilson -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Sam Reinhart
Zemgus Girgensons -- Jack Eichel -- Jason Pominville
Benoit Pouliot -- Evan Rodrigues -- Nicholas Baptiste
Jordan Nolan -- Johan Larsson -- Kyle Okposo
Marco Scandella -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Brendan Guhle -- Casey Nelson
Josh Gorges -- Victor Antipin
Linus Ullmark
Robin Lehner
Scratched: Justin Bailey, Justin Falk
Injured: Nathan Beaulieu (upper body), Chad Johnson (upper body), Jacob Josefson (lower body), Kyle Criscuolo (upper body), Jake McCabe (shoulder), Zach Bogosian (hip)

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Jesper Fast
Jimmy Vesey -- Kevin Hayes -- Mats Zuccarello
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Ryan Spooner -- Pavel Buchnevich
Cody McLeod -- Peter Holland -- Paul Carey
Marc Staal -- Neal Pionk
Brady Skjei -- Ryan Sproul
John Gilmour -- Rob O'Gara
Alexandar Georgiev
Ondrej Pavelec
Scratched: David Desharnais
Injured: Henrik Lundqvist (back/neck), Tony DeAngelo (ankle), Kevin Shattenkirk (knee surgery), Steven Kampfer (fractured hand)

Status report

Georgiev will make his fifth start in six games. … Lundqvist will miss his second consecutive game, but he practiced Friday and could return next week.

Stat pack

Fast has nine points (three goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak. … Kreider has eight points (two goals, six assists) in a four-game point streak O'Reilly leads the NHL in faceoffs won (1,167). He's on pace for 1,295 faceoff wins, which would set an NHL record for most faceoff wins in a season since the League started began keeping the statistic in 1997-98. Rod Brind'Amour holds the record with 1,268 in 2005-06.