Sabres at Rangers preview

SABRES (11-24-9) at RANGERS (23-17-5)
7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, MSG, NHL.TV

The Rangers have not won successive games since they won three straight from Dec. 15-19.
New York defeated Buffalo 3-2 in overtime in the Winter Classic, played at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, on New Year's Day.
The Rangers are 2-4-0 since winning the outdoor game, but are coming off a 5-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. It was New York's first victory in regulation since a 4-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 19.
The Sabres are looking for their second win in seven games; they're 1-4-1 in their past six and 3-7-3 in their past 13.

Players to watch

Sabres center Jack Eichel has three goals and three assists) during a three-game point streak, and has 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) in his past 12 games.
Rangers forward Rick Nash ended a 12-game goal drought by scoring two against the Flyers.

They said it

"In the position we're in, you've got to go out and prove yourself every night. Teams come in and they're licking their chops, they're thinking it's point night. We've got to establish a game that's a hard game to play against. I don't think we've done that well enough consistently this year." -- Sabres forward Kyle Okposo
"We have to understand the importance of what created that win [Tuesday]. It was a real focused group … We limited our turnovers and you could see the difference." -- Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh

Sabres projected lineup

Benoit Pouliot -- Jack Eichel -- Kyle Okposo
Evander Kane -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Jason Pominville
Zemgus Girgensons -- Evan Rodrigues -- Sam Reinhart
Scott Wilson -- Johan Larsson -- Jordan Nolan
Marco Scandella -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Jake McCabe -- Justin Falk
Josh Gorges --
Casey Nelson
Robin Lehner
Chad Johnson
Scratched: None
Injured: Victor Antipin (illness), Jacob Josefson (lower body), Zach Bogosian (lower body), Nathan Beaulieu (illness)

Rangers projected lineup

Rick Nash -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Mats Zuccarello -- J.T. Miller --
Vinni Lettieri
Jimmy Vesey -- David Desharnais -- Paul Carey
Michael Grabner --
Peter Holland
-- Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh -- Nick Holden
Brady Skjei -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Brendan Smith -- Steven Kampfer
Henrik Lundqvist
Ondrej Pavelec
Scratched: None
Injured:Chris Kreider (blood clot, right arm), Kevin Hayes (contusion), Marc Staal (hip flexor)

Status report

Nelson will make his NHL season debut after being recalled from Rochester of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. He has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in 37 AHL games. … Staal will miss his first game of the season; he was injured Tuesday.

Stat pack

The Sabres have allowed at least one power-play goal in seven consecutive games. ... Shattenkirk has no goals in 29 games since Nov. 6.