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

1995–96 Final Standings

1995–96 Game Results

Buffalo finished 20th in the league, 5th in the Northeast.

Eastern

Northeast

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	y-Pittsburgh Penguins	82	49	29	4	102	.622	362	284	–	–	+78	102	L1
2	x-Boston Bruins	82	40	31	11	91	.555	282	269	–	–	+13	86	W1
3	x-Montréal Canadiens	82	40	32	10	90	.549	265	248	–	–	+17	87	T1
4	Hartford Whalers	82	34	39	9	77	.470	237	259	–	–	-22	75	L1
5	Buffalo Sabres	82	33	42	7	73	.445	247	262	–	–	-15	77	W3
6	Ottawa Senators	82	18	59	5	41	.250	191	291	–	–	-100	49	W1

Atlantic

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	y-Philadelphia Flyers	82	45	24	13	103	.628	282	208	–	–	+74	106	W3
2	x-New York Rangers	82	41	27	14	96	.585	272	237	–	–	+35	93	L5
3	x-Florida Panthers	82	41	31	10	92	.561	254	234	–	–	+20	89	W1
4	x-Washington Capitals	82	39	32	11	89	.543	234	204	–	–	+30	93	L2
5	x-Tampa Bay Lightning	82	38	32	12	88	.537	238	248	–	–	-10	79	L1
6	New Jersey Devils	82	37	33	12	86	.524	215	202	–	–	+13	87	L1
7	New York Islanders	82	22	50	10	54	.329	229	315	–	–	-86	57	T2

Western

Central

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	p-Detroit Red Wings	82	62	13	7	131	.799	325	181	–	–	+144	125	W4
2	x-Chicago Blackhawks	82	40	28	14	94	.573	273	220	–	–	+53	99	T1
3	x-Toronto Maple Leafs	82	34	36	12	80	.488	247	252	–	–	-5	80	W1
4	x-St. Louis Blues	82	32	34	16	80	.488	219	248	–	–	-29	72	T1
5	x-Winnipeg Jets (1979)	82	36	40	6	78	.476	275	291	–	–	-16	77	L1
6	Dallas Stars	82	26	42	14	66	.402	227	280	–	–	-53	65	L2

Pacific

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	y-Colorado Avalanche	82	47	25	10	104	.634	326	240	–	–	+86	106	L1
2	x-Calgary Flames	82	34	37	11	79	.482	241	240	–	–	+1	82	L1
3	x-Vancouver Canucks	82	32	35	15	79	.482	278	278	–	–	0	82	W1
4	Anaheim Ducks	82	35	39	8	78	.476	234	247	–	–	-13	78	W2
5	Edmonton Oilers	82	30	44	8	68	.415	240	304	–	–	-64	63	L5
6	Los Angeles Kings	82	24	40	18	66	.402	256	302	–	–	-46	69	W1
7	San Jose Sharks	82	20	55	7	47	.287	252	357	–	–	-105	55	L4

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 82 GP