luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · November 1, 2025

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

Blues at Blue Jackets, Nov 1, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Blue Jackets beat the Blues 3–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Blue Jackets win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 56 points of win probability to the Blue Jackets.

The biggest swing (P2, 8:05 left): Zach Werenski scored on a snap shot from 33 feet, worth 20 points of win probability to the Blue Jackets.

Final

St. Louis Blues 2
Columbus Blue Jackets 3

November 1, 2025 · Nationwide Arena

Luck index +46 Blue Jackets lucky · −46 Blues

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. Blues win 5, Blue Jackets win 5.

  1. 1 STL 7 CBJ 3
  2. 2 STL 5 CBJ 2
  3. 3 STL 5 CBJ 3
  4. 4 STL 6 CBJ 5
  5. 5 STL 5 CBJ 4
  6. 6 STL 5 CBJ 6
  7. 7 STL 6 CBJ 7
  8. 8 STL 3 CBJ 5
  9. 9 STL 1 CBJ 4
  10. 10 STL 1 CBJ 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 3,999.9 replays ended

Blues win 46% of them, Blue Jackets 54%. The line is what actually happened: Blue Jackets by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Blues by 3+17.9%
Blues by 29.1%
Blues by 119.2%
Blue Jackets by 120.1%
Blue Jackets by 210.2%
Blue Jackets by 3+23.5%

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 Blue Jackets: the final margin was Blue Jackets by 1, without the luck Blue Jackets by 0.1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Blues5523.54−1.54
Blue Jackets4533.37−0.37

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 2:52 High sticking on the Blue Jackets (Denton Mateychuk): 2 minutes on the power play +4% STL
P2 12:55 High sticking on the Blues (Nick Bjugstad): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CBJ
P2 4:37 Cross checking on the Blues (Matthew Kessel): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CBJ
P3 15:18 Hooking on the Blues (Nathan Walker): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CBJ
P3 9:55 Interference on the Blue Jackets (Ivan Provorov): 2 minutes on the power play +5% STL

When it happened

Blue Jackets’ chance of winning

As low as 37% 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 Blue Jackets were ahead in it, below while the Blues were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 16:23 Justin Faulk scored on a wrist shot from 34 feetShooting · 4% chance +16% STL –
2 P1 15:23 Charlie Coyle’s snap shot from 4 feet was savedShooting · 42% chance +7% STL –
3 P1 15:22 Charlie Coyle scored on a tip from 5 feetShooting · 16% chance +14% CBJ –
4 P1 11:25 Miles Wood’s backhand shot from 2 feet was savedShooting · 28% chanceMiles Wood’s wrist shot from 3 feet was savedShooting · 26% chanceMiles Wood’s backhand shot from 11 feet was savedShooting · 9% chance +10% STL –
5 P2 8:05 Zach Werenski scored on a snap shot from 33 feetShooting · 6% chance +20% CBJ –
6 P3 14:53 Sean Monahan scored on a backhand shot from 4 feetShooting · 18% chance +12% CBJ –
7 P3 10:12 Nick Bjugstad scored on a snap shot from 25 feetShooting · 14% chance +11% STL –
8 P3 2:48 Nick Bjugstad’s slap shot from 5 feet was savedShooting · 33% chance +14% CBJ –

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

Blues 54% · Blue Jackets 46%

Final margin
Blue Jackets by 1
Luck in goals
0.9 for the Blue Jackets
Luck-adjusted margin
Blue Jackets by 0.1
Replay with same day's form
Blues 46% · Blue Jackets 54% 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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