The Rangers look to build off their strong game against the Flyers tonight against the Sabres. Buffalo is 3-5-2 in their last 10 games. That mark included the 3-2 overtime loss to New York in the Winter Classic. The Blueshirts hadn’t been markedly better before their win Tuesday and need to be careful not to look past the Sabres to their upcoming four-game road trip.

Following practice yesterday, Alain Vigneault said that Kevin Hayes, who missed the last two games with a leg contusion, is "coming along," day to day and will hopefully get back on the ice soon. AV added that Hayes has done a lot of "hard off-ice work" the past two days and that he could return to skating in the next day or two. That rules Hayes out of tonight’s game and puts his availability, at least for the start of the road trip Saturday in Colorado and Sunday against Los Angeles, in jeopardy.

Marc Staal, who left the win over the Flyers after the second period with a hip flexor, won’t play tonight. The hope as well is that he won’t be out long-term. Steven Kampfer will dress for Staal tonight. If either Hayes or Staal or both look like they won’t be ready early on the road trip, the Rangers may opt to call up a forward and/or a defenseman.

AV likes having an extra player at each spot for far away road trips, which makes sense with the farm club in Hartford. New York could call back up Boo Nieves, who was just sent down. But if the plan was for him to see heavy minutes and work on his deficiencies, bringing him back now would seem to slow down that process. Necessity outweighs anything else, so Nieves is likely the first choicenwith Cole Schneider possibly second with Gabriel Fontaine and Adam Tambellini further down the list. On the blue line, Neal Pionk, Anthony DeAngelo and John Gilmour are all possible options. Gilmour could be rewarded for his All-Star season at Hartford with a promotion, at least for the short term.

With Hayes out, the forwards will be the same as Tuesday. Vigneault was especially effusive in his praise of Peter Holland’s line, wanting to keep that trip together. With Rick Nash scoring twice, no reasons to tweak that line as well.

Nash-Zibanejad-Buchnevich
Zuccarello-Miller-Lettieri
Grabner-Holland-Fast
Carey-Desharnais-Vesey

With Staal out and Kampfer in, we will know this AM what the combinations will be. Kampfer could just replace Staal in his pairing with Brady Skjei. To me, that probably makes the most sense. Let Brendan Smith and Kevin Shattenkirk remain together and see if they can create some chemistry and cohesiveness. We know AV doesn’t want to break up the Ryan McDonagh-Nick Holden duo, no matter how much protesting is out there on the web, so expect that pairing to remain intact.

McDonagh-Holden
Skjei-Kampfer
Smith-Shattenkirk

Henrik Lundqvist will again be between the pipes. Ondrej Pavelec played last Saturday against the Islanders following the bye-week. With back-to-back games Saturday against the Avalanche and Sunday versus the Kings, it wouldn’t shock me if Pavelec played one of those two. Normally you would say play him against Colorado, but the Avalanche have been red-hot, so either game will be a challenge. Following those two contests, the Rangers take on Anaheim on Tuesday and San Jose on Thursday and I expect Lundqvist between the pipes for each game.

If New York fashions themselves as still being in the race and a contender, a win today is paramount. Then the California road trip will show a lot about the direction the team might take. Those games lead right into the NHL All-Star break and 14 games in February.

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