The Rangers complete the pre- All Star Game schedule with a contest against the Sabres on Monday. New York comes in off a 3-0 loss to Ottawa; a game where their compete level left more than a little to be desired. In fact, other than Henrik Lundqvist and Jesper Fast, singled out by coach Alain Vigneault, and in my view, JT Miller, no one showed up.

I get that the drudgery of a season can wear a team down. Especially one that has had deep playoff runs the past few seasons and has more than a few bumps and bruises. But we have seen this team take nights off way too often to the point where we wonder nightly what effort we will see. Plus, they were coming in off one of their better games having won two in a row and had just two games to go before an extended break, so motivation should not have been an issue.

To an extent, the failure of this team to bring it nightly falls on the coaching staff. This is something AV realizes, as he said today: "My job is to make them perform up to their potential. Obviously I can say right now that I haven't done that." But as a professional, your job is to give max effort or at least a reasonable facsimile of it nightly. So while I do place some blame on the coaching staff and they do need to do a better job getting this team up and ready to play, a large portion of the blame lays at the feet of each player. Get your proverbial heads out of your proverbial read ends and play hockey tonight.

The Rangers will be without Rick Nash for the second straight game tonight. An MRI on his injured leg revealed a bone bruise. To me, the best case scenario is that Nash is ready to go next Tuesday. But that is no guarantee as we have seen bone bruises vary in terms of extent of the bruise and length of time to heal. So don't write his name in ink in next Tuesday's lineup. That means the same 12 forwards who for the most part, save for two, were MIA yesterday will be back in the lineup tonight. Let's see how Brassard - two goals and one assist in 12 games since Xmas, Stepan and Hayes - one goal and five assists in 25 games - match up against ROR and Jack Eichel.

On the blue line, Dan Boyle will sit the second game of the back to back. This isn't surprising as Boyle had done that several times earlier in the year. You could make the argument that Dan Girardi maybe should sit bit it's not as if sitting Boyle is a questionable move. Pair McD with McI or have Yandle skate with the rookie, allowing him to use his offensive skills knowing McIlrath will be back to cover for him.

Lundqvist will be in net again. I think if NY had won, Antti Raanta would have played. But with a week off, the Rangers coming off a bad loss and an angry Hank questioning his teammates heart and effort level, AV wanted him tonight.

First half officially ends tonight. Let's see which team shows up. The one who was so good Friday or the one who mailed it in yesterday.

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