Best 20-game finishes in team history — 21-22 Sabres in contention to join the list

[Stoner]

With four wins, the Sabres would go 12-5-3 in their final 20 games for 27 points.

Best 20-game finishes (I'll admit to scanning the record book right quick and so have only about a 90% confidence I got this perfectly):

 

75-76: 13-4-3 ties (29 points)

10-11: 13-4-3 (29 points)

79-80: 10-2-8 ties (oh, sister!; 28 points)

74-75: 12-5-3 ties (27 points)

21-22: 12-5-3 (27 points)

11-12: 12-5-3 (27 points)

(89-90, 00-01 and 06-07 finished with 26 points)

 

What did strong finishes mean? The 76 team, a year out from making the final, barely escaped the Blues in a best of three preliminary round and fell to the upstart Islanders in the quarterfinals. The 11 team was, of course, the last Sabres team to make the playoffs, and somehow choked on a glorious likelihood of knocking out Philly. The 80 team went on a long run, losing again to the Islanders, this time in the semifinal round, in Bowman's first spring as head coach — recalled for Lindy going after Billy Smith in the decisive game on LI. 75, you know what happened. In 12, the Sabres' heroic run came up short of a playoff berth. Of the 26ers, oh what might have been had Lemieux gotten vertigo or Gilmour some desire.

As for the following October and any carryover from the spring, I haven't gotten that far in my study. Others can opine. One thing I realized is that my skepticism of strong finishes in the last 10 years doesn't seem to be based on much — there haven't been any strong finishes since 2012, really. Of course I am defining a strong finish somewhat broadly. I'm pretty sure some of the recent finishes had people dreaming of autumn, and not just for the cool temps and colorful leaves.

I'm not sure there's any precedent for the place this franchise finds itself. People can point to 03-04, but it wasn't a particularly impressive ending to the season, the last quarter anyway. These Sabres might be in uncharted waters.

An odd footnote is that the 92-93 Sabres lost their last seven games before sweeping the Bs!

Edited April 18, 2022 by PASabreFan