With their playoff hopes on life support, the New York Rangers are set to kick off a two game set with the Buffalo Sabres tonight at Madison Square Garden. The Blueshirts currently trail the Boston Bruins by six points for the fourth and final playoff spot in the MassMutual East Division, and the Bruins have two games in hand. While the Rangers finish the season with a pair of games in Boston and an opportunity to close that gap, those games won’t matter if the team fails to take care of business against Buffalo.
The Blueshirts have already taken nine points out of their previous six meetings with the Sabres, and their 4-1-1 record thus far means that they’ve already secured at least a split of the season series.