Buffalo Sabres Trivia
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60 free Buffalo Sabres trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Buffalo Sabres trivia quiz covers a franchise born from a name-the-team contest and a lucky spin of a wheel that delivered Gilbert Perreault. It runs through the French Connection, Punch Imlach's fictional draft pick, the Fog Game and the bat, the Adams Division years, Alexander Mogilny's defection, Pat LaFontaine, 'May Day!', Dominik Hasek's Harts and Vezinas, the Ted Nolan feud, the 1999 'No Goal' final, the Adelphia scandal, Briere and Drury, Ryan Miller, the Pegula purchase, Jack Eichel, and the 14-season playoff drought that finally ended in 2026. The arena, colours and culture get their own round: the Aud, KeyBank Center's many names, 'Sabre Dance', the blue-and-gold crossed-sabres logo, the red-and-black years, the reviled Buffaslug, the Winter Classic at the Bills' stadium and Rick Jeanneret's banner. Easy questions suit any Sabres fan; the hard ones are for people who remember Taro Tsujimoto. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Sabres joined the NHL in 1970 alongside which other expansion team?
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks entered alongside Buffalo, and the NHL put both newcomers in its East Division, although Vancouver sits on the Pacific coast.
Q 02The Sabres' founding owners, the Knox brothers, were grandsons of a co-founder of which five-and-dime chain?
Woolworth's
Woolworth's was co-founded by their grandfather Seymour H. Knox I, a cousin and partner of Frank Woolworth who merged his own five-and-dime stores into the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1912.
Q 03Why did the Sabres' founders say their contest-winning name suited a hockey team?
A sabre strikes and parries
A sabre strikes and parries: the team's press release called it 'a clean, sharp, decisive and penetrating weapon on offense, as well as a strong parrying weapon on defense', and the owners wanted anything but Bisons.
Q 04Who composed 'Sabre Dance', the Sabres' signature music since 1970?
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Khachaturian added 'Sabre Dance' to his finished ballet Gayane when the theatre asked for one more dance, and wrote it in eleven hours, from 3 pm to 2 am.
Q 05How did the Sabres win the 1970 draft's first pick, Gilbert Perreault?
A spin of a wheel of fortune
A spin of a wheel of fortune settled the first pick: Clarence Campbell misread the pointer as 1 and announced the wrong winner, then looked again at Punch Imlach's urging and saw 11, one of Buffalo's numbers.
Q 06Which Hall of Fame centre did the Sabres acquire from the Winnipeg Jets in a 1990 draft-day blockbuster?
Dale Hawerchuk
Dale Hawerchuk, the Jets' first overall pick of 1981, came to Buffalo on June 16, 1990; Winnipeg used the first-round pick it got back on Keith Tkachuk.
Q 07The French Connection line consisted of Perreault, Rick Martin and whom?
Rene Robert
Rene Robert, acquired from Pittsburgh for Eddie Shack in March 1972, joined Perreault and Martin on the line that powered the Sabres to the 1975 Stanley Cup Final.
Q 08The French Connection line was named after what?
A 1971 film
A 1971 film, The French Connection starring Gene Hackman, gave the line its name, with a nod to the trio's French-Canadian roots.
Q 09At the 1974 draft, Sabres GM Punch Imlach selected a fictitious Japanese player named what?
Taro Tsujimoto
Taro Tsujimoto was Punch Imlach's prank on a draft he found tediously long: the Sabres' 183rd pick did not exist, and fans took to bringing signs bearing his name to home games.
Q 10During the Sabres' 1975 Stanley Cup Final 'Fog Game', Jim Lorentz killed what with his stick?
A bat
A bat swooped low over the ice in Game 3 and Lorentz swatted it dead; fog then kept stopping play while rink staff skated around with bed sheets to clear it, and Buffalo won 5-4 in overtime.
Q 11The Sabres lost their first Stanley Cup Final, in 1975, to which team?
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers, the Broad Street Bullies, won the 1975 Final in six games, clinching 2-0 in Buffalo in Game 6 as Bernie Parent earned the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Q 12Which Hall of Fame defenceman was still playing for the Sabres at 44 when he died in a 1974 car crash?
Tim Horton
Tim Horton crashed on the QEW near St. Catharines on February 21, 1974, driving back to Buffalo after a road game; the doughnut chain he co-founded in 1964 carries his name.
Q 13Which Sabre became the first Soviet player to defect to the NHL, in 1989?
Alexander Mogilny
Q 21The Sabres lost the 1999 Stanley Cup Final on a disputed triple-overtime goal by which Dallas Stars player?
Brett Hull
Brett Hull scored at 14:51 of the third overtime with his skate in the crease, which the rule of the day normally forbade; the NHL ruled he had kept possession, and 'No Goal' became Buffalo's lament.
Q 22The Sabres' late-1990s owner John Rigas founded which cable company?
Adelphia Communications
Adelphia Communications, based in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and Rigas was arrested for fraud; the NHL took control of the Sabres until a buyer was found.
Q 23Which billionaire bought the Sabres out of NHL control in 2003?
Tom Golisano
Alexander Mogilny slipped away from the Soviet team at the 1989 World Championship in Stockholm and signed with Buffalo, which had drafted him 89th overall in 1988.
Q 14The 1991 trade that sent Pierre Turgeon to the Islanders brought which star centre to Buffalo?
Pat LaFontaine
Pat LaFontaine was sitting out in a contract dispute with the Islanders when Buffalo landed him on October 25, 1991; a season later he set the Sabres' record with 148 points.
Q 15Which Sabre's overtime goal finished a 1993 sweep of Boston and inspired a famous radio call?
Brad May
Brad May scored in overtime of Game 4 on April 24, 1993, as the Sabres' announcer screamed 'May Day!' over and over; it gave Buffalo its first playoff series win in ten years.
Q 16Dominik Hasek came to the Sabres in 1992 in a trade with which team?
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks traded Hasek to Buffalo on August 7, 1992, for goalie Stephane Beauregard and a fourth-round pick, having used him behind Ed Belfour; he became 'The Dominator' in Buffalo.
Q 17In 2001 the Sabres traded Dominik Hasek to which team?
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings gave up Vyacheslav Kozlov and a first-round pick for Hasek in the summer of 2001, and he won the Stanley Cup in his first season there, the title that had escaped him in Buffalo.
Q 18In 1997 the Sabres' Dominik Hasek became the first goalie since Jacques Plante to win MVP and which award?
Vezina
The Vezina went to Hasek alongside the MVP award in 1997, a double last achieved by Jacques Plante in 1962, but a knee sprain three games into the playoffs ended his season.
Q 19Why was Dominik Hasek suspended during the Sabres' 1997 playoff run?
Grabbing a columnist
Grabbing a columnist got him three games: Jim Kelley of The Buffalo News had questioned how badly Hasek's knee was hurt, and the goalie seized him by the shirt, later apologised, and was fined $10,000.
Q 20Which coach won the 1997 Jack Adams Award with Buffalo, then left after refusing a one-year deal?
Ted Nolan
Ted Nolan was coach of the year but at odds with Dominik Hasek and general manager John Muckler; the new GM, Darcy Regier, offered only a one-year contract, and Nolan turned it down.
Tom Golisano, founder of the payroll firm Paychex, agreed to buy the bankrupt Sabres in March 2003, ending nearly a year of uncertainty over the team's future, and sold them to Terry Pegula in 2011.
Q 24A 10-0 start carried the 2006-07 Sabres to which trophy?
Presidents' Trophy
The Presidents' Trophy, for the NHL's best record, was Buffalo's first, won with 113 points after a start that tied the NHL record; the Sabres then lost the conference final to Ottawa in five games.
Q 25On July 1, 2007, the Sabres lost both co-captains to free agency: Daniel Briere and whom?
Chris Drury
Chris Drury signed with the Rangers on July 1, 2007, the day Daniel Briere also left; days later Buffalo matched Edmonton's seven-year, $50 million offer sheet rather than lose Thomas Vanek too.
Q 26The Sabres hosted the first NHL Winter Classic on January 1, 2008, at which venue?
Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, the Bills' home, drew 71,217 on a snowy New Year's Day; Pittsburgh won 2-1 when Sidney Crosby scored in the shootout.
Q 27Which Sabres goaltender was voted the NHL's best in 2010 after starring at that winter's Olympics?
Ryan Miller
Ryan Miller was voted the NHL's top goaltender for 2009-10 and MVP of that winter's Olympics, where his only defeat in six games for the United States was the gold-medal final against Canada.
Q 28Terry Pegula bought the Sabres in 2011 having made his fortune in which industry?
Natural gas
Natural gas made Pegula's fortune: he sold most of East Resources' Marcellus Shale holdings to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion, then bought the Sabres in 2011 and the Bills in 2014.
Q 29Which centre did the Sabres draft second overall in 2015 and trade to Vegas in 2021?
Jack Eichel
Jack Eichel, picked second behind Connor McDavid in 2015, wanted artificial-disc neck surgery the Sabres opposed; Vegas acquired him in November 2021 and he won the Stanley Cup there in 2023.
Q 30The Sabres won the 2018 draft lottery and selected which Swedish defenceman first overall?
Rasmus Dahlin
Rasmus Dahlin of Frölunda went first overall in June 2018 after Buffalo won the lottery from the league's worst record; three years later another lottery win brought Owen Power.