{"id":548369,"date":"2026-04-09T01:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548369\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T01:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:00:45","slug":"buffalo-sabres-vs-new-york-rangers-open-thread-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548369\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres vs. New York Rangers Open Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <a class=\"gh-article-tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blueshirtbanter.com\/tag\/new-york-rangers-game-threads\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Rangers Game Threads<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gh-article-excerpt is-body\">Join the in-game conversation with the Blueshirt Banter community by becoming a member today!<\/p>\n<p>                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueshirtbanter.com\/author\/jake\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-profile-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/jake.jpeg\" alt=\"Jake DiBlasio\"\/><br \/>\n                            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/USATSI_27962383_168415590_lowres.jpg\" alt=\"Game #79: Buffalo Sabres vs. New York Rangers Open Thread\"\/><br \/>\n            \u00a9 Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>It is the final game at Madison Square Garden this season, and the New York Rangers will take on the Buffalo Sabres. The Rangers won both of their back-to-back games over the weekend, most recently against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueshirtbanter.com\/rangers-vs-capitals-joy-and-sadness-in-rangerstown\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Washington Capitals<\/a>. The Sabres won their last game against the Tampa Bay Lightning and currently sit in second place in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n<p>The Rangers will continue to use the same lines that they have been deploying over the last few games. In their current lineup, their skaters consist of five rookies and 10 players 25 years old or younger. Between the pipes for the Rangers will be Igor Shesterkin. For the Sabres, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will get the start in net. Buffalo is also without former Ranger Sam Carrick, who is out with an upper-body injury.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"fi\" dir=\"ltr\">Lines and D pairs at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NYR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=blueshirtbanter.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#NYR<\/a> practice today are the same:<\/p>\n<p>Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafreniere<br \/>Kartye-Miller-Sheary<br \/>Cuylle-Trocheck-Brodzinski<br \/>Sykora-Laba-Chmelar<\/p>\n<p>Gavrikov-Fox<br \/>Fortescue-Schneider<br \/>Robertson-Borgen<br \/>Vaakanainen-Iorio<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colin Stephenson (@ColinSNewsday) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinSNewsday\/status\/2041539601836163583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=blueshirtbanter.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 7, 2026<\/a><br \/>\nWhere to Watch<\/p>\n<p>Cable\/Network TV: MSG 2, NHL website, NHL app, and the Gotham Sports app<\/p>\n<p>National Broadcast: ESPN+<\/p>\n<p>Radio: 880 AM<\/p>\n<p>                    Sign up for Blueshirt Banter<\/p>\n<p class=\"kg-signup-card-subheading\" style=\"color: #000000;\">The top destination for New York Rangers fans\u2014news, trade rumors, stats, podcasts, and in-depth analysis from the trusted Blueshirt Banter team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"kg-signup-card-disclaimer\" style=\"color: #000000;\">No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.<\/p>\n<p>        Player to Watch: Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re<\/p>\n<p>The beginning of the year was a rough one for Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re, but we have seen a completely different player in the back half of the season. With four games remaining in the season, Lafreni\u00e8re needs as many points to tie his career high, which he achieved during the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-7.png\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1062\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>While his performance may be hurting the team&#8217;s odds <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueshirtbanter.com\/why-the-rangers-ruining-the-tank-is-fine\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">of winning the lottery<\/a>, if that is the cost of the Rangers&#8217; former first overall pick finding his game, it is worth it.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy the game! <\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Rangers Game Threads Join the in-game conversation with the Blueshirt Banter community by becoming a member&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1107,229,5133,5,4,1108],"class_list":{"0":"post-548369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-buffalosabres","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sabres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116372049544077073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}