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

1973–74 Final Standings

1973–74 Game Results

Buffalo finished 8th in the league, 5th in the East.

League

East

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Boston Bruins	78	52	17	9	113	.724	349	221	–	–	+128	111	W1
2	Montréal Canadiens	78	45	24	9	99	.635	293	240	–	–	+53	93	L1
3	New York Rangers	78	40	24	14	94	.603	300	251	–	–	+49	92	W1
4	Toronto Maple Leafs	78	35	27	16	86	.551	274	230	–	–	+44	92	L1
5	Buffalo Sabres	78	32	34	12	76	.487	242	250	–	–	-8	75	W1
6	Detroit Red Wings	78	29	39	10	68	.436	255	319	–	–	-64	61	L1
7	Vancouver Canucks	78	24	43	11	59	.378	224	296	–	–	-72	57	L1
8	New York Islanders	78	19	41	18	56	.359	182	247	–	–	-65	55	W1

West

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Philadelphia Flyers	78	50	16	12	112	.718	273	164	–	–	+109	115	W1
2	Chicago Blackhawks	78	41	14	23	105	.673	272	164	–	–	+108	114	W3
3	Los Angeles Kings	78	33	33	12	78	.500	233	231	–	–	+2	79	W1
4	Atlanta Flames	78	30	34	14	74	.474	214	238	–	–	-24	70	W2
5	Pittsburgh Penguins	78	28	41	9	65	.417	242	273	–	–	-31	69	L1
6	St. Louis Blues	78	26	40	12	64	.410	206	248	–	–	-42	64	L2
7	Minnesota North Stars	78	23	38	17	63	.404	235	275	–	–	-40	66	L5
8	California Golden Seals	78	13	55	10	36	.231	195	342	–	–	-147	38	L5

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