Rangers and ex-Sabres

by Ryan

Whenever the Rangers come up on the schedule, I think of Chris Drury.

I can't help it. He's still one of my favorite hockey players to this day, and I've thought about his style of hockey a lot over the past few years. I'm not filled with obsessive thoughts; I don't scan his box scores or look for articles about him, and you wouldn't catch me dead in a Rangers #23 shirsey. Still, when the Rangers highlights come on it's no longer Jagr, Leetch, and Richter that come to mind. It's Chris Drury.

That being said, I don't feel the attachment to Chris I used to. I like his game, I like what he brings to a hockey team, but he's a Ranger and that's fine. It's pretty obvious that the further we get away from that summer the more we understand what happened. To be quite honest, I'm completely okay with it. The Sabres were decidedly moving in a certain direction, and unfortunately they got burned. Then the Vanek thing happened. But whatever. The team is fine, and everyone involved is okay.

But why am I talking about that now? This is a huge game for the Sabres, who sit in 8th with quite a few teams on their heels. The Rangers are currently in 5th, six points ahead of the Sabres. You can throw in the "four point game" moniker if you'd like, but that's your call. Buffalo's been on a roll lately, and this is the last home game for quite some time. Many are already considering tomorrow's trip to Detroit in the loss column, so a good showing tonight is important before the long road trip.

Kevin sets it up much better than I did, so I'd take a look at that and get a good read on the Rangers. Chris is going to the game and will handle the View post, and I'll have a few ramblings up in a bit, including where to watch the game with us tomorrow.