The Rangers’ five day layoff comes to an end in just under three hours when they take on the seventh seeded Buffalo Sabres. After watching the teams around them move up and down the standings for the last five days, it will be good to see the Rangers get back to work and try to start moving back up into the playoff picture.

Henrik Lundqvist will be in net for the Rangers, who will be without Petr Prucha, (sprained shoulder) Marc Staal, (flu) and Marcel Hossa (back.) Staal could be a late edition to the lineup based on how pre-game skates go for him, but after missing most of this week’s practices look for both Marek Malik and Jason Strudwick to be in.

There will also be some different line combinations for tonight. Here’s what they looked like in practice this week:

Avery – Dubinsky – Jagr
Dawes – Gomez – Shanahan
Straka – Drury – Callahan
Hollweg – Betts – Orr

Tom Renney also tried out Hossa in Ryan Hollweg’s spot, but it looks like he ultimately decided to keep the fourth line intact.

Back later on with a synopsis, analysis and opinion based post or rant, depending on the outcome. Enjoy.