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

1981–82 Final Standings

1981–82 Game Results

Buffalo finished 6th in the league, 3rd in the Adams.

Prince of Wales

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	y-New York Islanders	80	54	16	10	118	.738	385	250	–	–	+135	113	L1
2	y-Montréal Canadiens	80	46	17	17	109	.681	360	223	–	–	+137	116	L2
3	x-Boston Bruins	80	43	27	10	96	.600	323	285	–	–	+38	90	W2
4	x-Buffalo Sabres	80	39	26	15	93	.581	307	273	–	–	+34	89	L1
5	x-New York Rangers	80	39	27	14	92	.575	316	306	–	–	+10	83	T1
6	x-Philadelphia Flyers	80	38	31	11	87	.544	325	313	–	–	+12	83	W1
7	x-Quebec Nordiques	80	33	31	16	82	.512	356	345	–	–	+11	83	W1
8	x-Pittsburgh Penguins	80	31	36	13	75	.469	310	337	–	–	-27	73	W2
9	Washington Capitals	80	26	41	13	65	.406	319	338	–	–	-19	75	W2
10	Hartford Whalers	80	21	41	18	60	.375	264	351	–	–	-87	58	L1

Clarence Campbell

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	z-Edmonton Oilers	80	48	17	15	111	.694	417	295	–	–	+122	107	W3
2	y-Minnesota North Stars	80	37	23	20	94	.588	346	288	–	–	+58	95	L1
3	x-Winnipeg Jets (1979)	80	33	33	14	80	.500	319	332	–	–	-13	77	L3
4	x-Vancouver Canucks	80	30	33	17	77	.481	290	286	–	–	+4	81	W2
5	x-Calgary Flames	80	29	34	17	75	.469	334	345	–	–	-11	77	L1
6	x-St. Louis Blues	80	32	40	8	72	.450	315	349	–	–	-34	72	W1
7	x-Chicago Blackhawks	80	30	38	12	72	.450	332	363	–	–	-31	73	W2
8	x-Los Angeles Kings	80	24	41	15	63	.394	314	369	–	–	-55	67	L5
9	Toronto Maple Leafs	80	20	44	16	56	.350	298	380	–	–	-82	61	L5
10	Detroit Red Wings	80	21	47	12	54	.338	270	351	–	–	-81	59	L1
11	Colorado Rockies	80	18	49	13	49	.306	241	362	–	–	-121	49	W1

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