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

1970–71 Final Standings

1970–71 Game Results

Buffalo finished 10th in the league, 5th in the East.

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Boston Bruins	78	57	14	7	121	.776	399	207	–	–	+192	123	W3
2	New York Rangers	78	49	18	11	109	.699	259	177	–	–	+82	106	W1
3	Chicago Blackhawks	78	49	20	9	107	.686	277	184	–	–	+93	108	L1
4	Montréal Canadiens	78	42	23	13	97	.622	291	216	–	–	+75	101	L1
5	St. Louis Blues	78	34	25	19	87	.558	223	208	–	–	+15	83	T1
6	Toronto Maple Leafs	78	37	33	8	82	.526	248	211	–	–	+37	90	W1
7	Philadelphia Flyers	78	28	33	17	73	.468	207	225	–	–	-18	72	T1
8	Minnesota North Stars	78	28	34	16	72	.462	191	223	–	–	-32	66	L4
9	Los Angeles Kings	78	25	40	13	63	.404	239	303	–	–	-64	60	W2
10	Buffalo Sabres	78	24	39	15	63	.404	217	291	–	–	-74	56	T2
11	Pittsburgh Penguins	78	21	37	20	62	.397	221	240	–	–	-19	72	T1
12	Vancouver Canucks	78	24	46	8	56	.359	229	296	–	–	-67	58	L1
13	Detroit Red Wings	78	22	45	11	55	.353	209	308	–	–	-99	49	L2
14	California Golden Seals	78	20	53	5	45	.288	199	320	–	–	-121	44	L2

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 78 GP