luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · November 18, 2025 · OT

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

Mammoth at Sharks, Nov 18, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Sharks beat the Mammoth 3–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Sharks win 4 of 10. Luck ran their way: overtime alone was worth 49 points of win probability to the Sharks.

The biggest swing (OT): the Sharks won in overtime, worth 49 points of win probability to the Sharks.

Final (OT)

Utah Mammoth 2
San Jose Sharks 3

November 18, 2025 · SAP Center at San Jose

Luck index +60 Sharks lucky · −60 Mammoth

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. Mammoth win 6, Sharks win 4.

  1. 1 UTA 4 SJS 0
  2. 2 UTA 3 SJS 0
  3. 3 UTA 2 SJS 0
  4. 4 UTA 2 SJS 1
  5. 5 UTA 1 SJS 0
  6. 6 UTA 2 SJS 1
  7. 7 UTA 1 SJS 2
  8. 8 UTA 2 SJS 3
  9. 9 UTA 2 SJS 4
  10. 10 UTA 0 SJS 3

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

Mammoth win 60% of them, Sharks 40%. The line is what actually happened: Sharks by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Mammoth by 3+20.9%
Mammoth by 213.0%
Mammoth by 125.8%
Sharks by 123.8%
Sharks by 28.5%
Sharks by 3+8.0%

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 +1.6 goals to the Sharks: the final margin was Sharks by 1, without the luck Mammoth by 0.6. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Mammoth3622.23−0.23
Sharks2721.37+0.63

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 12:26 Interference on the Mammoth (Ian Cole): 2 minutes on the power play +3% SJS
P2 16:15 Interference on the Sharks (Barclay Goodrow): 2 minutes on the power play +3% UTA
P2 7:36 Slashing on the Mammoth (Clayton Keller): 2 minutes on the power play +3% SJS
P2 2:15 Tripping on the Mammoth (JJ Peterka): 2 minutes on the power play +2% SJS
P3 15:37 Hooking on the Sharks (Macklin Celebrini): 2 minutes on the power play +2% UTA
P3 6:22 Delaying game unsuccessful challenge on the Mammoth (UTA): 2 minutes on the power play +5% SJS
OT 3:12 Too many men on the ice on the Mammoth (UTA): 2 minutes on the power play +12% SJS

When it happened

Sharks’ chance of winning

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 Sharks were ahead in it, below while the Mammoth were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 18:13 Macklin Celebrini scored on a wrist shot from 23 feetShooting · 4% chance +15% SJS –
2 P1 14:02 Macklin Celebrini scored on a wrist shot from 27 feetShooting · 9% chance +12% SJS –
3 P1 6:51 John Marino’s backhand shot from 7 feet was savedShooting · 12% chanceJohn Marino’s backhand shot from 5 feet was savedShooting · 17% chance +4% SJS –
4 P3 10:35 JJ Peterka scored on a wrist shot from 16 feetShooting · 16% chance +11% UTA –
5 P3 6:22 Delaying game unsuccessful challenge on the Mammoth (UTA): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% SJS –
6 P3 2:51 JJ Peterka scored on a snap shot from 40 feetShooting · 5% chance +39% UTA –
7 OT The Sharks won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +49% SJS –
8 OT 3:12 Too many men on the ice on the Mammoth (UTA): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +12% SJS –

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

Mammoth 66% · Sharks 34%

Final margin
Sharks by 1
Luck in goals
1.6 for the Sharks
Luck-adjusted margin
Mammoth by 0.6
Replay with same day's form
Mammoth 60% · Sharks 40% 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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