Photo: Amanda Bowen

I used to like the Sabres. I thought, hey, they’re on the upswing, they’re young and resurgent, they’ve got a good coach and a good fanbase, which includes our own Amanda Bowen.

But then those last two games happened. The Caps beat the Sabres twice in back-to-back games at the end of 2015, but those were testy games with bad hits and facepunches. I did not like those games, even though the Caps won both with a combined score of 7-2.

Let’s see if Buffalo still remembers those twin embarrassments. Caps at Sabres tonight at 7 PM on CSN-Plus. Mike Richards is in the lineup. Chris Gordon has your recap.

Team Record Possession PDO Power Play Penalty Kill Washington Capitals 33-7-3 52.0% 102.3 26.1% 85.0% Buffalo Sabres 17-23-4 46.5% 98.7 19.4% 77.5%

Projected Lineup

It appears Mike Richards will make his debut as a Washington Capital. From Isabelle:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie

Burakovsky – Kuznetsov – Williams

Chimera – Johansson – Wilson

Sill – Richards – Latta

Alzner – Niskanen

Orlov – Schmidt

Ness – Chorney

Holtby

The Ear Test

Aaron, you don't have to watch games! Soon you won't have to go to concerts. Analytics will tell us if Wilco rocked https://t.co/PBrBMT3qQ0 — Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) January 15, 2016

This is a lovely comment. It compares evaluation of art to evaluation of athletes, the former being a fully subjective thing and the latter being one where outcomes aren’t just quantifiable, they’re binary: wins and losses. But that’s not the real point.

The real point is that we already have analytics that tell us if Wilco rocked. Wilco’s (non-free) sold album, The Whole Love, shipped around 200 thousand units. Bro country shit merchant Lee Brice shipped 470 thousand units of his 2012 album, Hard 2 Love, therefore Wilco rocked about 58 percent less hard than Lee Brice.

That’s what the analytics tell us. Lee Brice > Wilco *

* Presuming we had a deliberately stupid understanding of analytics, which is not some dogmatic, authoritarian, black-box stack ranking, but rather an evidence-based, decision-making process, often peer-reviewed, which requires a combination of many metrics and an understanding of the contexts that inform those metrics. So instead of being snide and incurious, it’d serve us better to think broadly and deeply and about the things we care about. P.S. Wilco rocks, and I liked that “I Drive Your Truck” Lee Brice song.

Storylines

Some lovely photos by Amanda Bowen, including some of tonight’s fourth-line center.

The Sabres are pretty fast in their top six. We might learn pretty quickly how must fuel is in the tank for Mike Richards , who hasn’t played since early April of 2015.

, who hasn’t played since early April of 2015. Brooks Laich (cap hit $4.5M) and Galiev are scratches. Braden Holtby and Grubauer are expected to trade-off this weekend, but we don’t know for sure who will start tonight, which is why I call it the projected lineup and not the this is definitely the lineup lineup.

(cap hit $4.5M) and Galiev are scratches. and Grubauer are expected to trade-off this weekend, but we don’t know for sure who will start tonight, which is why I call it the projected lineup and not the this is definitely the lineup lineup. I will never get over the crossword story. I love this team right now, I really do.

Evgeny Kuznetsov will one day retire and become some kind of Swiss Hemingway. BTW, I’ve decided he will drink Laphroaig 25 except on super special occasions, when he enjoys a nice Armagnac brandy after dinner.

will one day retire and become some kind of Swiss Hemingway. BTW, I’ve decided he will drink Laphroaig 25 except on super special occasions, when he enjoys a nice Armagnac brandy after dinner. The whole John Scott thing reeks. The NHL does some super sketchy stuff.

John Scott was previously asked by both NHL and Arizona Coyotes to bow out of NHL All-Star Game. He refused. Trade likely takes care of that — Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 15, 2016

Tunes

One of my favorite bands, Two Inch Astronaut, have a new album coming out next year, producer by one of my fave producers, J. Robbins of Jawbox. Here’s “Personal Life.”

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Sabres