luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · October 16, 2025

No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

Panthers at Devils, Oct 16, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Devils beat the Panthers 3–1, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 6 of 10.

The biggest swing (P3, 13:37 left): Timo Meier scored on a tip from 21 feet, worth 27 points of win probability to the Devils.

Final

Florida Panthers 1
New Jersey Devils 3

October 16, 2025 · Prudential Center

Luck index +38 Devils lucky · −38 Panthers

Each team’s own shots from this game, resampled into new games 4,000 times, each a goal at its chance, with the power plays the penalties gave and the pulled goalie at the end: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works

Ten replays. Panthers win 4, Devils win 6.

  1. 1 FLA 4 NJD 1
  2. 2 FLA 3 NJD 2
  3. 3 FLA 5 NJD 4
  4. 4 FLA 3 NJD 2
  5. 5 FLA 2 NJD 3
  6. 6 FLA 2 NJD 3
  7. 7 FLA 3 NJD 5
  8. 8 FLA 4 NJD 7
  9. 9 FLA 1 NJD 4
  10. 10 FLA 1 NJD 5

Three other ways to ask

Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.

No closing line for this game.

Needs the closing line, which this game has not got.

Every shot redrawn at its chance, overtime and the shootout replayed as near coin flips; the shots themselves and every call fixed. The narrowest view of luck.

How 4,000 replays ended

Panthers win 38% of them, Devils 62%. The line is what actually happened: Devils by 2.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Panthers by 3+9.4%
Panthers by 27.7%
Panthers by 120.5%
Devils by 122.8%
Devils by 211.8%
Devils by 3+27.9%

Where the luck was

What the luck was worth

Every lucky and unlucky play, weighted by the moment it happened: its swing in win probability, added up by kind. A post hit in a blowout counts for nothing; the same post with a minute left in a tie game can be most of a win.

Swings add up across a game, so in one that went back and forth they can pass 100%. On the scoreboard the same luck was worth +0.9 goals to the Devils: the final margin was Devils by 2, without the luck Devils by 1.1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Panthers3612.15−1.15
Devils4832.90+0.10

Regulation with both goalies in. Expected goals: our model of each shot’s chance from where and how it was taken (distance, angle, shot type, rebound, rush, strength), adjusted for the shooter’s and the goalie’s records. A team above expected finished better or met a weaker night in goal; 75% of the gap counts as luck (why that share).

Calls

Every penalty that put a team on the power play, and every goal taken off the board on review, with what it did to the helped team’s chance of winning at that moment. Calls don’t count toward luck by default: who draws penalties repeats from game to game like a skill (how calls are valued). Switch them on below.

WhenCallWin probability for
P1 15:04 Tripping on the Devils (Luke Hughes): 2 minutes on the power play +4% FLA
P1 11:36 Tripping on the Panthers (Mackie Samoskevich): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P1 10:58 Holding the stick on the Devils (Luke Hughes): 2 minutes on the power play +4% FLA
P1 8:27 Too many men on the ice on the Panthers (FLA): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P1 2:13 Interference on the Panthers (Brad Marchand): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P2 14:56 Tripping on the Panthers (Evan Rodrigues): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P2 9:17 Interference on the Devils (Jesper Bratt): 2 minutes on the power play +5% FLA
P2 1:35 Hooking on the Devils (Brenden Dillon): 2 minutes on the power play +6% FLA
P3 19:22 Hooking on the Devils (Jesper Bratt): 2 minutes on the power play +6% FLA
P3 1:17 A Panthers goal came off the board on review (goal interference) +3% NJD
P3 1:17 Delaying game unsuccessful challenge on the Panthers (FLA): 2 minutes on the power play +1% NJD

When it happened

Devils’ chance of winning

As low as 33% and as high as 100%. Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.

Our in-game win probability: the score and the time left, starting from the betting line (or the home edge alone when there is none), with goals at the league’s rates for the score. Overtime is drawn at a fixed width. Shaded above the middle while the Devils were ahead in it, below while the Panthers were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 18:01 Evan Rodrigues scored on a snap shot from 8 feetShooting · 16% chance +13% FLA –
2 P2 14:56 Tripping on the Panthers (Evan Rodrigues): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% NJD –
3 P2 14:12 Jack Hughes scored on a snap shot from 20 feetShooting · 9% chance +19% NJD –
4 P2 9:17 Interference on the Devils (Jesper Bratt): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% FLA –
5 P2 1:35 Hooking on the Devils (Brenden Dillon): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +6% FLA –
6 P3 19:22 Hooking on the Devils (Jesper Bratt): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +6% FLA –
7 P3 13:37 Timo Meier scored on a tip from 21 feetShooting · 5% chance +27% NJD –
8 P3 8:13 Nico Hischier scored on a wrist shot from 22 feetShooting · 14% chance +10% NJD –

Adjust the assumptions

Think finishing is more skill than we do, or that the calls were luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.

Only coin-flips re-rolled

Panthers 20% · Devils 80%

Final margin
Devils by 2
Luck in goals
0.9 for the Devils
Luck-adjusted margin
Devils by 1.1
Replay with same day's form
Panthers 38% · Devils 62% unchanged: why
How much of each is luck?

0% treats it as skill, 100% as pure luck. The tick is our fit.

What counts
Flip a play

Force the other outcome, in this game and in every replay: a goal becomes a save, a post goes in, a penalty goes the other way.

About these numbers

Play-by-play from the NHL via fastRhockey; expected goals, in-game win probability and the replays are our own models, fitted on every game since 2018-19 (methodology and validation). Blocked shots aren’t replayed (their location is the block’s, not the shot’s). No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

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