The New York Rangers host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. The last time these two teams met, Buffalo won, 4-2, but a lot has changed since then.

The Rangers just jumped into sixth place in the East, ahead of Montreal and Carolina, with 82 points, and the Sabres have 76 points, are in 10th place, and are not in the playoff picture.

Sabres starting goalie Ryan Miller has missed nine games since being hurt in the game against the Rangers on Feb. 21, when he fell awkwardly into the end board after being upended by New York’s Scott Gomez.

Miller has begun skating on his own to test his injured left ankle and is confident he is on track to return before the end of the season.

The Rangers are 21-10-4 at home, in Madison Square Garden, where they will meet the Sabres.

General manager Darcy Regier and coach Lindy Ruff appear to be safe in their jobs, even as the Buffalo Sabres struggle to remain in playoff contention in the Eastern Conference, The Buffalo News reported recently.

Buffalo lost their last game to the Ottawa Senators, 4-2.

The New York Rangers new coach, John Tortorella just set a record for most wins by an American coach in the USA. The Rangers won their last game, 4-3, over the Montreal Canadians.

The Rangers got off to a strong start this year, endured their worst slump in decades, dropped out of the playoff picture, but GM Glen Sather hired Tortorella, traded for Nik Antropov and Derek Morris, and brought back Sean Avery.

The re-energized Rangers have won six of their last their games with a new game plan that features aggressive attack all the time.

The Sabres got Mikael Tellqvist from the Phoenix Coyotes and Dominic Moore from the Toronto Maple Leafs but lost their shootout weapon Ales Kotalik at the trade deadline.