Coming off of yesterday's big announcement, the focus at least for right now shifts back to the action on the ice. With the Rangers 5-5 in their last 10 and struggling to break the win one, lose one pattern, they head to upstate NY to face the Sabres. Buffalo has their own issues, which to a certain extent makes the Rangers' ones pale by comparison, as they are just 3-11-1 at home and 1-6-1 since Ted Nolan took as interim coach. The two teams met a little over a month ago with the Rangers winning 2-0; though the score doesn’t accurately reflect just how one-sided the game was.

The Rangers tonight will have a slightly tweaked lineup. Derek Dorsett, who missed two games with a sprained wrist but returned to the lineup against Vancouver, will be sidelined again by the injury. In addition, the revolving door that is the fifth and sixth defenseman spins again tonight, as Justin Falk will be out of the lineup and John Moore, who had been scratched the last two, getting back. Of course, that could change if Anton Stralman, who had seen some time in the training room due to being banged up, misses the contest, but that looks unlikely. A possible bigger concern is that with Dorsett and Falk out, the Rangers lose their physical presence while facing old friend John Scott. That lack of a response when liberties have been taken has been a concern for a while, so the Rangers may need to use their speed to offset the physical advantage the Sabres might have.

Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash
Mats Zuccarello-Brad Richards-Ryan Callahan
Carl Hagelin-Derick Brassard-Benoit Pouliot
Brian Boyle-Dominic Moore-Taylor Pyatt

AV spoke about the bottom pairing today, saying none of the three rotating are viewed or capable of playing in the top-four, though Moore may be the closest. Also, get used to the rotation since the lineup will be opponent based - if speed is needed, MDZ plays, if it's a bit more grit and bite, Falk plays, and Moore looks to be the one constant. Of course, with Moore coming back in, MDZ moves to his weaker side, which could be a concern this evening. In addition, AV mentioned that the only D-man who has exceeded expectations is McDonagh (though I think Stralman has as well). He added that Staal's issues have been puck related, making the right decisions, which is why he may not have pinched as much as he can, because he is concerned with protecting the defensive side of the ice. It's an area that the Rangers believe Staal can grow in and it may just be him getting re-acclimated after missing time with injuries the past few seasons.

Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Anton Stralman
John Moore-Michael Del Zotto

Obviously, much of the talk in the past day concerned the Lundqvist extension. The main criticisms of it are the years - as some believe that six years should have been the max - and the dollars - based on thought that he should have taken a real hometown discount to stay with NY. To a certain extent, Lundqvist did take a discount, since he probably would have gotten the same years - as per the CBA, only NY could have given him eight years - but likely close to $9+ mil per,. So what likely happened is the Rangers upped the years, but lowered the base slightly, which still upped the overall package but not where it could have been if he ended up on the open market. Is it the discount we wanted? No, as I was hoping for $7.5 mil per, which would have been above Rinne and Rask but saved some cash for the future, but if consider what he is making now, what the overall compensation for both goalies was with Biron and now with Talbot, what the cap may rise to and the % of which he utilizes, the deal is still a pretty good one. Now great, but within the reasonable range.

Also, from the comments during and after the press conference by Lundqvist, the speculation that he was being adversely impacted by the lack of a deal or negotiations can likely be put to bed. I am sure there still was some residual impact, but not at the extent that Larry Brooks and others believed was the case. "During the summer I probably thought about it every day,” Lundqvist said. “Going into training camp it was definitely there. I wanted to get it done. But then, when it didn’t happen, a couple of days it was on my mind but then I let it go, so it hasn’t been a factor for me the last month or so. I put it behind me and worked on my game . You always want to find reasons why you’re not on top of your game. I’m not going to bring this into that. I managed to put it on the side.”

Henrik Lundqvist

Kevin Freihart and I agreed to exchange predictions, and while I am usually not in the habit of doing one, I will add one here. Here is Kevins's:
Prediction: The Sabres have been playing better as of late. Things are moving at a slow pace going forward, but Buffalo picked up three of its' last four potential points. Lundqvist should be ready to go with his new contract and will have a big night. The Rangers earned a 2-0 shutout last time these teams met. Since the Sabres scoring is almost non existent, I expect the Rangers to come out on top. Rangers 4, Sabres 1

For me: I expect Hank will have a strong game on the heels of his extension. Callahan loves playing for the hometown crowd, so a goal from him would not surprise me. The Nash/Kreider combination will each score one, so predicting a 3-0 or 3-1 final, just because Ryan Miller will likely stand on his head again.

Great discussion and comments on Ryan Callahan in the prior blog. I will get to all them and my own thoughts, which I think are pretty well known, in a separate blog. I will also re-run the Girardi comments from the blog that ran yesterday AM before the Lundqvist signing which I ended up replacing with the one on Hank.

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