SabresAllTheWay
January 16th, 2008, 11:41:53 AM
Chris Drury's former team is going through the worst losing streak in franchise history. His new one hasn't played much better lately.
Drury faces his former team for the first time as the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres meet at Madison Square Garden in a matchup of struggling teams.
When Drury signed a five-year, $35 million contract with the Rangers on July 1, that move figured to strengthen New York while weakening the Sabres.
Only the latter, though, has been realized.
Buffalo (19-18-6), which enters this matchup having lost a club-record nine straight, won't come close to the franchise record it matched with 113 points last season. The Rangers (21-20-5) are arguably the league's most disappointing team, having lost six of seven to fall into last place in the Atlantic Division.
This is the first meeting between these teams since the Sabres eliminated the Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Drury scored the biggest goal of the series with 8 seconds left in regulation in Game 5, preventing New York from taking a 3-2 series lead.
Drury has fallen short of expectations with 12 goals in 46 games for New York after he had 23 at that point last season.
Despite adding Drury and All-Star center Scott Gomez to a team which already had 600-goal scorers Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, the Rangers ranked 28th in the league with 109 goals scored entering play Tuesday night. Jagr is on pace to score less than 30 goals for the first time since his 1990-91 rookie season.
After ending a five-game losing streak in their previous game, the Rangers lost 4-1 at Pittsburgh on Monday despite registering 44 shots.
"You can have some tough luck around the other team's net and not score and be snake-bitten," coach Tom Renney said. "I feel we weren't destined for one tonight."
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist hasn't been sharp lately, going 1-4-1 with a 3.32 goals-against average in his last six starts.
As expected, the departures of Drury and Daniel Briere have hit the Sabres hard. Only four teams in the league have fewer points than Buffalo (44), which has not won since Dec. 22.
The Sabres have scored 124 goals in 43 games, a huge drop-off from last season when they finished with a league-best 308.
That lack of offense has become more apparent during the nine-game skid, their longest stretch without a victory since a 12-game winless streak during the 2002-03 season. They have scored 15 goals in their last nine contests.
"We're playing good hockey," goaltender Ryan Miller said. "We're not just going through the motions. We haven't been getting the victories."
http://sabres.nhl.com/team/app?gameNumber=686&gameType=2&nhlLink=true&page=Preview&season=20072008&service=page
Drury faces his former team for the first time as the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres meet at Madison Square Garden in a matchup of struggling teams.
When Drury signed a five-year, $35 million contract with the Rangers on July 1, that move figured to strengthen New York while weakening the Sabres.
Only the latter, though, has been realized.
Buffalo (19-18-6), which enters this matchup having lost a club-record nine straight, won't come close to the franchise record it matched with 113 points last season. The Rangers (21-20-5) are arguably the league's most disappointing team, having lost six of seven to fall into last place in the Atlantic Division.
This is the first meeting between these teams since the Sabres eliminated the Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Drury scored the biggest goal of the series with 8 seconds left in regulation in Game 5, preventing New York from taking a 3-2 series lead.
Drury has fallen short of expectations with 12 goals in 46 games for New York after he had 23 at that point last season.
Despite adding Drury and All-Star center Scott Gomez to a team which already had 600-goal scorers Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, the Rangers ranked 28th in the league with 109 goals scored entering play Tuesday night. Jagr is on pace to score less than 30 goals for the first time since his 1990-91 rookie season.
After ending a five-game losing streak in their previous game, the Rangers lost 4-1 at Pittsburgh on Monday despite registering 44 shots.
"You can have some tough luck around the other team's net and not score and be snake-bitten," coach Tom Renney said. "I feel we weren't destined for one tonight."
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist hasn't been sharp lately, going 1-4-1 with a 3.32 goals-against average in his last six starts.
As expected, the departures of Drury and Daniel Briere have hit the Sabres hard. Only four teams in the league have fewer points than Buffalo (44), which has not won since Dec. 22.
The Sabres have scored 124 goals in 43 games, a huge drop-off from last season when they finished with a league-best 308.
That lack of offense has become more apparent during the nine-game skid, their longest stretch without a victory since a 12-game winless streak during the 2002-03 season. They have scored 15 goals in their last nine contests.
"We're playing good hockey," goaltender Ryan Miller said. "We're not just going through the motions. We haven't been getting the victories."
http://sabres.nhl.com/team/app?gameNumber=686&gameType=2&nhlLink=true&page=Preview&season=20072008&service=page