1992–93 Buffalo Sabres season

The 1992–93 Buffalo Sabres season was the Sabres' 23rd season in the National Hockey League. Three Buffalo players scored at least 20 power-play goals each. Mogilny led all skaters in hat tricks during the regular season with 7, and Buffalo tied the Pittsburgh Penguins for most hat tricks scored by a team, with 10. The Sabres stumbled into the 1993 NHL Playoffs, losing their final 7 regular-season games.

Offseason

NHL Draft

Buffalo's draft picks at the 1992 NHL Entry Draft held at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec.

Round	#	Player	Nationality	College/Junior/Club Team
1	11	David Cooper		Medicine Hat Tigers
2	35	Jozef Cierny		ZTK Zvolen
3	59	Ondrej Steiner		Skoda Plzen
4	80	Dean Melanson		Saint-Hyacinthe Laser
4	83	Matthew Barnaby		Beauport Harfangs
5	107	Markus Ketterer		Jokerit
5	108	Yuri Khmylev		Krylya Sovetov
6	131	Paul Rushforth		North Bay Centennials
8	179	Dean Tiltgen		Tri-City Americans
9	203	Todd Simon		Niagara Falls Thunder
10	227	Rick Kowalsky		Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
11	251	Chris Clancy		Cornwall Royals

Regular season

Pat LaFontaine

LaFontaine exploded offensively in the 1992–93 season with a personal-best and team-record 148 points. The 148 points are also the most points ever scored by an American-born player in one season. His play-making ability enabled his linemate, Alexander Mogilny to set a team season record with 76 goals,. LaFontaine finished as runner-up to Mario Lemieux in the scoring race and earned a spot on the postseason NHL All-Star Second Team. He was also a finalist for the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and the Lady Byng Trophy as the most sportsmanlike player.
During the 1993 playoffs, LaFontaine engineered another great moment: in spite of playing with a damaged knee, as well as having fallen onto the ice, he still managed to set up Brad May's overtime, series-clinching goal against the Boston Bruins.

Season standings

Schedule and results

Playoffs

Adams Division semi-finals

Boston vs. Buffalo

Buffalo's four-game sweep of the Bruins ended with a memorable overtime goal by Brad May at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium, leading to Sabres' play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret's famous "May Day! May Day! May Day!" call.

April 18 - Buffalo 5 Boston 4
April 20 - Buffalo 4 Boston 0
April 22 - Boston 3 Buffalo 4
April 24 - Boston 5 Buffalo 6

Buffalo wins best-of-seven series 4–0

Adams Division Finals

Montreal vs. Buffalo

The long-awaited series between Patrick Roy and Grant Fuhr had finally arrived. The Canadiens swept the series, winning every game by a score of 4–3; three of the four the games in overtime.

May 2 - Buffalo 3 Montreal 4
May 4 - Buffalo 3 Montreal 4
May 6 - Montreal 4 Buffalo 3
May 8 - Montreal 4 Buffalo 3

Montreal wins best-of-seven series 4–0

Player statistics

Forwards

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Pat LaFontaine	84	53	95	148	63
Alexander Mogilny	77	76	51	127	40
Dale Hawerchuk	81	16	80	96	52
Dave Andreychuk*	52	29	32	61	48
Bob Sweeney	80	21	26	47	118
Randy Wood	82	18	25	43	77
Yuri Khmylev	68	20	19	39	28
Wayne Presley	79	15	17	32	96
Brad May	82	13	13	26	242
Dave Hannan	55	5	15	20	43
Donald Audette	44	12	7	19	51
Bob Corkum	68	6	4	10	38
Viktor Gordiouk	16	3	6	9	0
Colin Patterson	36	4	2	6	22
Rob Ray	68	3	2	5	211
Bob Errey*	8	1	3	4	4
Scott Thomas	7	1	1	2	15
Matthew Barnaby	2	1	0	1	10
Doug MacDonald	5	1	0	1	2
Peter Ciavaglia	3	0	0	0	0

* - player was traded during season; stats only include games played with Buffalo

Defencemen