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

1978–79 Final Standings

1978–79 Game Results

Buffalo finished 7th in the league, 2nd in the Adams.

Prince of Wales

Adams

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Boston Bruins	80	43	23	14	100	.625	316	270	–	–	+46	92	W1
2	Buffalo Sabres	80	36	28	16	88	.550	280	263	–	–	+17	85	T1
3	Toronto Maple Leafs	80	34	33	13	81	.506	267	252	–	–	+15	85	L1
4	Minnesota North Stars	80	28	40	12	68	.425	257	289	–	–	-32	71	L1

Norris

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Montréal Canadiens	80	52	17	11	115	.719	337	204	–	–	+133	117	L1
2	Pittsburgh Penguins	80	36	31	13	85	.531	281	279	–	–	+2	81	L1
3	Los Angeles Kings	80	34	34	12	80	.500	292	286	–	–	+6	82	W1
4	Washington Capitals	80	24	41	15	63	.394	273	338	–	–	-65	63	W1
5	Detroit Red Wings	80	23	41	16	62	.388	252	295	–	–	-43	67	W1

Clarence Campbell

Patrick

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	New York Islanders	80	51	15	14	116	.725	358	214	–	–	+144	118	W4
2	Philadelphia Flyers	80	40	25	15	95	.594	281	248	–	–	+33	90	W1
3	New York Rangers	80	40	29	11	91	.569	316	292	–	–	+24	86	L2
4	Atlanta Flames	80	41	31	8	90	.563	327	280	–	–	+47	92	L1

Smythe

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Chicago Blackhawks	80	29	36	15	73	.456	244	277	–	–	-33	70	W1
2	Vancouver Canucks	80	25	42	13	63	.394	217	291	–	–	-74	57	T1
3	St. Louis Blues	80	18	50	12	48	.300	249	348	–	–	-99	54	L1
4	Colorado Rockies	80	15	53	12	42	.263	210	331	–	–	-121	46	T2

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