List of Buffalo Sabres seasons

An indoor arena with a roof which has three levels full of fans surrounding an ice rink
The interior of KeyBank Center during a Sabres home game in 2023

The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL).[1] Founded in 1970 as an expansion franchise, the Sabres played their homes games at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium from their inaugural season to 1996, and currently play in the KeyBank Center. The 2023–24 NHL season marked the 54th year of operation for the franchise. As of the end of the 2023–24 season, the Sabres have won 1,918 regular season games, accumulated six division championships and one conference championship, tied for the league lead in points once, appeared in the playoffs 29 times, and reached the Stanley Cup finals twice, losing both times.[2]

The Sabres started play in 1970, and made their first Stanley Cup appearance in 1975, losing the finals in six games against the Philadelphia Flyers. Over the next 10 seasons, the Sabres made a postseason appearance every year, advancing as far as the semifinals in the 1979–80 season, where they lost the series to the New York Islanders in five games. During the ten-year postseason appearance streak, the Sabres won the Prince of Wales Conference twice and the Adams Division three times. The 1985–86 season marked the first time the Sabres failed to qualify for the playoffs since the 1973–74 season, missing the point cutoff by 4 points. The Sabres returned two years later in the 1987–88 season, beginning an eight-year postseason appearance streak. During this period, the Sabres only made it past the first round once in the 1992–93 season, where they were subsequently eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in a sweep. The Sabres missed the playoffs in 1996, finishing in 11th of the Eastern Conference with 73 points,[3] 15 points behind the last team that qualified in the Eastern Conference, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Sabres returned to the postseason the following year, starting their most successful postseason appearance streak, lasting for five years. Compared to the previous streak, the Sabres managed to advance past the first round in every season with the exception of the 1999–2000 season. The 1999 playoff run is the most recent appearance in the Stanley Cup finals for the Sabres as of the 2023–24 season. The Sabres had won the conference by beating the Senators, the Bruins, and the Maple Leafs. The Sabres faced the Dallas Stars in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, a series that they lost in six, albeit in dubious fashion. The series ended with a controversial triple-overtime goal in game six where replays showed that Stars forward Brett Hull scored with his skate in the crease. Despite the Sabres protesting the goal, the league stated that the goal had been reviewed and was judged as a good goal.[4]

Following the 2000–01 season, the Sabres went on a three-year postseason appearance drought. After returning from the 2004–05 lockout, the Sabres returned to the postseason, making it to the conference finals against Carolina Hurricanes which was lost in seven. The 2006–07 season saw the Sabres put on their best performance in franchise history, with a franchise-high 53 wins to win the division and the Presidents' Trophy at 113 points.[5] With their regular season success, they advanced to the conference finals for the second year in a row, where they lost to the Senators in five. The Sabres would not make the playoffs for another two seasons. The Sabres won the Northeast division in the 2009–10 season and moved on to the playoffs, being eliminated in the first round by the Bruins in six. The same fate happened the following year when they made the playoffs and got eliminated in the first round, this time by the Philadelphia Flyers in seven. Since the 2010–11 season, the Sabres have not made a playoff appearance, setting the all-time record for longest postseason appearance drought in NHL history at 13 years and tying with the New York Jets for the longest active postseason drought across the major four professional sports leagues across North America.[6] The Sabres have also not won a single postseason series since the 2006–07 season, tying for 5th in all-time postseason series win droughts. The playoff drought has been accredited to multiple reasons, including failures of rebuilds, a lack of depth in rosters, and injuries to key players over multiple seasons.[7]

  1. ^ "Rosters, Arena Information, and Aerial Maps". National Hockey League. Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  2. ^ "Team Index". Hockey Reference. Archived from the original on May 28, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  3. ^ "1995-96 NHL Standings". Hockey Reference. Archived from the original on October 8, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  4. ^ Murphy, Bryan (May 23, 2024). "Last time Stars won the Stanley Cup: Revisiting the 1999 championship with Joe Nieuwendyk, Brett Hull". The Sporting News. Archived from the original on May 23, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  5. ^ Ryndak, Chris (March 25, 2020). "Sabres Classics: Sabres start 2006-07 season with 10 wins in a row". Buffalo Sabres. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  6. ^ Fairburn, Matthew (April 10, 2024). "Sabres miss playoffs for 13th straight season, tie longest active drought in pro sports". The Athletic. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  7. ^ Strozyk, Jacob D. (October 30, 2024). "Buffalo Sabres' Decade of Disappointment". The Hockey Writers. Archived from the original on May 26, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.