Don't know where to put this, so putting it in this thread.
If you rank the NHL teams by points, points percentage, and goal differential, an interesting anomaly with the Sabres pops out.
Typically, teams which are usually toward "the best" or "the worst" in one of those categories is toward the best or the worst in all 3 categories.
We all know that by season's end, it's common for most all the teams with positive goal differentials to be playoff bound, and those with negative goal differentials to be sitting out.
At the roughly quarter-point in the season, if you take the difference between a team's points percentage ranking and their goal differential ranking, the data stratifies as follows:
6 teams with zero ranking differential
6 teams with either a -1 or +1 ranking differential
6 teams with either a -2 or +2 ranking differential
that means ~half the NHL teams find their points/points percentage consistent with their goal differential.
8 more teams have a -4, -3, +3 or +4 ranking differential
so 80% of the NHL teams remain pretty well behaved.
5 teams have a -5, -6, or +5 ranking differential.
Buffalo is the most egregious outlier.
They are 25th in points and points percentage, but 14th in goal differential, a difference in the above ranking listing of 11 places. As noted above, no other team is close to that anomalous.
That maybe suggests they are winning big but losing close, and losing more frequently?
Their current +4 goal differential for the season would typically have them in the ~12th to 20th spot, i.e., a bubble team or "low seed qualifier".
Anyway, food for thought.