The Buffalo Sabres are one of the NHL's older teams, but not among the oldest. The Sabres and Vancouver Canucks joined the league in 1970 as the 13th and 14th teams. Today, the NHL has 32 teams. Since 1970, both the Sabres and Canucks have won their conference three times and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, neither team has won the Cup yet.
Where the Sabres differentiate themselves from the Canucks is in all-time points percentage, both in the regular season and postseason. In regular-season points percentage, the Sabres rank in the top half of the league while the Canucks are close to the bottom. The two teams' records are closer in the postseason, but the Sabres have still set themselves apart from their 1970 expansion mate.
The Sabres won the Presidents' Trophy for having the best record (most points) during the 2006-07 regular season. They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals that year, but lost 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators. The Senators went on to lose to the Anaheim Ducks in the Finals. That was the second straight year the Sabres made it to the Conference Finals. They lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes the year prior (2006).
The last decade has been a bad one for the Sabres with zero playoff appearances since 2011. The team is currently trying to break, by far, the longest playoff drought in franchise history. The Sabres of today are a far cry from what was once a perennial playoff team. And not only did the Sabres make the playoffs, they won in the playoffs.
The 1999 Stanley Cup Finals is a painful memory for Sabres fans. As I wrote in my review for the Dallas Stars (https://www.yelp.com/biz/dallas-stars-dallas?hrid=vMVpN9vc7fcBN9bAvg3Xnw), Game 6 was a classic. It was a triple-overtime thriller that ended with a controversial Stanley-Cup-winning goal: https://youtu.be/vF_LRVuhNa4. According to the NHL's rules at the time, Brett Hull's goal for the Stars was good even though his skate was in the crease. The controversy led to a rule change the following season. read more