luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · November 15, 2025 · SO

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

Rangers at Blue Jackets, Nov 15, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Rangers beat the Blue Jackets 2–1, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Rangers win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: shootout alone was worth 50 points of win probability to the Rangers.

The game turned on a luck play (SO): the Rangers won the shootout, worth 50 points of win probability to the Rangers.

Final (SO)

New York Rangers 2
Columbus Blue Jackets 1

November 15, 2025 · Nationwide Arena

Luck index +48 Rangers lucky · −48 Blue Jackets

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. Rangers win 5, Blue Jackets win 5.

  1. 1 NYR 6 CBJ 2
  2. 2 NYR 3 CBJ 0
  3. 3 NYR 4 CBJ 2
  4. 4 NYR 2 CBJ 1
  5. 5 NYR 3 CBJ 2
  6. 6 NYR 2 CBJ 3
  7. 7 NYR 2 CBJ 3
  8. 8 NYR 2 CBJ 3
  9. 9 NYR 1 CBJ 3
  10. 10 NYR 3 CBJ 6

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

Rangers win 52% of them, Blue Jackets 48%. The line is what actually happened: Rangers by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Rangers by 3+20.0%
Rangers by 210.7%
Rangers by 121.4%
Blue Jackets by 121.6%
Blue Jackets by 29.3%
Blue Jackets by 3+17.0%

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 +0.8 goals to the Rangers: the final margin was Rangers by 1, without the luck Rangers by 0.2. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Rangers5312.80−1.80
Blue Jackets4012.57−1.57

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
P2 15:48 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Damon Severson): 2 minutes on the power play +5% NYR
P2 9:07 Cross checking on the Rangers (Urho Vaakanainen): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CBJ
P2 8:47 Interference on the Blue Jackets (Dmitri Voronkov): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NYR
P2 6:00 Too many men on the ice on the Rangers (NYR): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CBJ

When it happened

Blue Jackets’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 54%. 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 Rangers were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P2 15:48 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Damon Severson): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% NYR –
2 P2 14:18 Mika Zibanejad scored on a wrist shot from 5 feetShooting · 28% chance +15% NYR –
3 P2 9:07 Cross checking on the Rangers (Urho Vaakanainen): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% CBJ –
4 P2 8:47 Interference on the Blue Jackets (Dmitri Voronkov): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% NYR –
5 P2 6:00 Too many men on the ice on the Rangers (NYR): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% CBJ –
6 P2 4:40 Dmitri Voronkov scored on a tip from 4 feetShooting · 24% chance +18% CBJ –
7 P3 19:22 Vincent Trocheck hit the left post with a slap shot from 8 feetShooting · 24% chance +6% CBJ –
8 SO The game turned hereThe Rangers won the shootoutShootout · shootouts are close to coin flips +49% NYR –

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

Rangers 54% · Blue Jackets 46%

Final margin
Rangers by 1
Luck in goals
0.8 for the Rangers
Luck-adjusted margin
Rangers by 0.2
Replay with same day's form
Rangers 52% · Blue Jackets 48% 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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