Standings by Year

As of:

Final NHL standings as of the last day of the regular season, for any year on record. View by Division, Conference, or League, and track where Buffalo (and every other team) stood across a season with the trend chart below.

Division Conference League

1979–80 Final Standings

1979–80 Game Results

Buffalo finished 2nd in the league, 1st in the Adams.

Prince of Wales

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	y-Buffalo Sabres	80	47	17	16	110	.688	318	201	–	–	+117	114	W4
2	y-Montréal Canadiens	80	47	20	13	107	.669	328	240	–	–	+88	104	T1
3	x-Boston Bruins	80	46	21	13	105	.656	310	234	–	–	+76	102	W1
4	x-Minnesota North Stars	80	36	28	16	88	.550	311	253	–	–	+58	96	L2
5	x-Toronto Maple Leafs	80	35	40	5	75	.469	304	327	–	–	-23	74	L1
6	x-Los Angeles Kings	80	30	36	14	74	.463	290	313	–	–	-23	74	L2
7	x-Pittsburgh Penguins	80	30	37	13	73	.456	251	303	–	–	-52	65	L1
8	x-Hartford Whalers	80	27	34	19	73	.456	303	312	–	–	-9	78	W2
9	Detroit Red Wings	80	26	43	11	63	.394	268	306	–	–	-38	69	L4
10	Quebec Nordiques	80	25	44	11	61	.381	248	313	–	–	-65	62	T1

Clarence Campbell

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	y-Philadelphia Flyers	80	48	12	20	116	.725	327	254	–	–	+73	100	L1
2	x-New York Islanders	80	39	28	13	91	.569	281	247	–	–	+34	90	W2
3	y-Chicago Blackhawks	80	34	27	19	87	.544	241	250	–	–	-9	77	L1
4	x-New York Rangers	80	38	32	10	86	.537	308	284	–	–	+24	86	W1
5	x-Atlanta Flames	80	35	32	13	83	.519	282	269	–	–	+13	84	T1
6	x-St. Louis Blues	80	34	34	12	80	.500	266	278	–	–	-12	76	W3
7	x-Vancouver Canucks	80	27	37	16	70	.438	256	281	–	–	-25	73	W4
8	x-Edmonton Oilers	80	28	39	13	69	.431	301	322	–	–	-21	75	W1
9	Washington Capitals	80	27	40	13	67	.419	261	293	–	–	-32	71	T1
10	Winnipeg Jets (1979)	80	20	49	11	51	.319	214	314	–	–	-100	51	W1
11	Colorado Rockies	80	19	48	13	51	.319	234	308	–	–	-74	59	L3

x - clinched playoff spot, y - clinched division, z - clinched conference, p - clinched Presidents' Trophy.

xPTS is the points a team’s goals for and against project: the Pythagorean win estimate GF² / (GF² + GA²), scaled to points as win% × 2 × games played. It follows the current pace on any “as of” date. +/-xPTS is real points minus xPTS, after removing each team’s overtime-loss points. That step matters because xPTS splits a flat 2 points per game, while an overtime game pays out 3, so without it almost every team since 1999–00 reads as lucky. What is left is the points a team banked above or below its goal margin: positive means winning more of the close and overtime games than goal difference alone predicts.

Standings Over the Course of the Season

Buffalo in navy. Tap any team to compare.

through 80 GP