luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · November 26, 2025

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

Canadiens at Mammoth, Nov 26, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Canadiens beat the Mammoth 4–3, but the replays lean toward the Mammoth: they take 6 of 10 with the same day's form. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 38 points of win probability to the Canadiens.

The game turned on a luck play (P3, 16:40 left): Nick Suzuki scored on a wrist shot from 26 feet, worth 25 points of win probability to the Canadiens.

Final

Montreal Canadiens 4
Utah Mammoth 3

November 26, 2025 · Delta Center

Luck index +63 Canadiens very lucky · −63 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. Canadiens win 4, Mammoth win 6.

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

Canadiens win 37% of them, Mammoth 63%. The line is what actually happened: Canadiens by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Canadiens by 3+11.1%
Canadiens by 26.4%
Canadiens by 119.1%
Mammoth by 120.7%
Mammoth by 211.8%
Mammoth by 3+30.9%

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 +1.8 goals to the Canadiens: the final margin was Canadiens by 1, without the luck Mammoth by 0.8. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Canadiens2542.14+1.86
Mammoth5234.20−1.20

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 11:58 Tripping on the Mammoth (Jack McBain): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MTL
P1 10:51 Hooking on the Mammoth (John Marino): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MTL
P1 2:40 Tripping on the Canadiens (Mike Matheson): 2 minutes on the power play +3% UTA
P2 10:53 Delaying game puck over glass on the Canadiens (Alexandre Carrier): 2 minutes on the power play +3% UTA
P2 6:08 Roughing on the Canadiens (Jared Davidson): 2 minutes on the power play +4% UTA
P3 18:07 Holding on the Mammoth (Kailer Yamamoto): 2 minutes on the power play +5% MTL
P3 12:03 High sticking on the Canadiens (Oliver Kapanen): 2 minutes on the power play +5% UTA

When it happened

Mammoth’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 78%. 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 Mammoth were ahead in it, below while the Canadiens were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 9:22 Zachary Bolduc scored on a slap shot from 40 feetShooting · 8% chance +16% MTL –
2 P1 3:23 Nick Suzuki scored on a slap shot from 29 feetShooting · 13% chance +13% MTL –
3 P2 10:17 Barrett Hayton scored on a snap shot from 25 feetShooting · 12% chance +14% UTA –
4 P2 8:02 Kailer Yamamoto scored on a wrist shot from 11 feetShooting · 14% chance +19% UTA –
5 P2 6:08 Michael Carcone scored on a wrist shot from 7 feetShooting · 19% chanceRoughing on the Canadiens (Jared Davidson): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +22% UTA –
6 P3 16:40 The game turned hereNick Suzuki scored on a wrist shot from 26 feetShooting · 7% chance +25% MTL –
7 P3 15:13 Ivan Demidov scored on a snap shot from 17 feetShooting · 20% chance +23% MTL –
8 P3 0:10 Logan Cooley missed the net with a bat shot from 9 feetShooting · 16% chance +8% MTL –

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

Canadiens 34% · Mammoth 66%

Final margin
Canadiens by 1
Luck in goals
1.8 for the Canadiens
Luck-adjusted margin
Mammoth by 0.8
Replay with same day's form
Canadiens 37% · Mammoth 63% 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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