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

1977–78 Final Standings

1977–78 Game Results

Buffalo finished 5th 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	51	18	11	113	.706	333	218	–	–	+115	112	L1
2	Buffalo Sabres	80	44	19	17	105	.656	288	215	–	–	+73	103	W2
3	Toronto Maple Leafs	80	41	29	10	92	.575	271	237	–	–	+34	91	L4
4	Cleveland Barons	80	22	45	13	57	.356	230	325	–	–	-95	53	L1

Norris

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Montréal Canadiens	80	59	10	11	129	.806	359	183	–	–	+176	127	L1
2	Detroit Red Wings	80	32	34	14	78	.487	252	266	–	–	-14	76	W1
3	Los Angeles Kings	80	31	34	15	77	.481	243	245	–	–	-2	79	W1
4	Pittsburgh Penguins	80	25	37	18	68	.425	254	321	–	–	-67	62	W1
5	Washington Capitals	80	17	49	14	48	.300	195	321	–	–	-126	43	W3

Clarence Campbell

Patrick

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	New York Islanders	80	48	17	15	111	.694	334	210	–	–	+124	115	W2
2	Philadelphia Flyers	80	45	20	15	105	.656	296	200	–	–	+96	110	L1
3	Atlanta Flames	80	34	27	19	87	.544	274	252	–	–	+22	87	L1
4	New York Rangers	80	30	37	13	73	.456	279	280	–	–	-1	80	W1

Smythe

	Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS ▾	PTS%	GF	GA	SOW	SOL	DIFF	xPTS	STRK
1	Chicago Blackhawks	80	32	29	19	83	.519	230	220	–	–	+10	84	L1
2	Colorado Rockies	80	19	40	21	59	.369	257	305	–	–	-48	66	W1
3	Vancouver Canucks	80	20	43	17	57	.356	239	320	–	–	-81	57	L1
4	St. Louis Blues	80	20	47	13	53	.331	195	304	–	–	-109	47	L1
5	Minnesota North Stars	80	18	53	9	45	.281	218	325	–	–	-107	50	W1

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 76 GP