luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · November 29, 2025 · OT

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

Canucks at Kings, Nov 29, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Kings beat the Canucks 2–1, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Kings win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: overtime alone was worth 49 points of win probability to the Kings.

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

Final (OT)

Vancouver Canucks 1
Los Angeles Kings 2

November 29, 2025 · Crypto.com Arena

Luck index +47 Kings lucky · −47 Canucks

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. Canucks win 5, Kings win 5.

  1. 1 VAN 6 LAK 3
  2. 2 VAN 5 LAK 2
  3. 3 VAN 6 LAK 4
  4. 4 VAN 2 LAK 1
  5. 5 VAN 3 LAK 2
  6. 6 VAN 3 LAK 4
  7. 7 VAN 1 LAK 2
  8. 8 VAN 2 LAK 4
  9. 9 VAN 2 LAK 5
  10. 10 VAN 0 LAK 4

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

Canucks win 47% of them, Kings 53%. The line is what actually happened: Kings by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Canucks by 3+14.3%
Canucks by 29.7%
Canucks by 122.8%
Kings by 123.0%
Kings by 211.3%
Kings by 3+18.9%

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 +0.8 goals to the Kings: the final margin was Kings by 1, without the luck Kings by 0.2. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Canucks3811.99−0.99
Kings3412.19−1.19

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 15:21 A Canucks goal came off the board on review (off side) +16% LAK
P1 8:45 Slashing on the Canucks (Max Sasson): 2 minutes on the power play +4% LAK
P1 5:21 Roughing on the Kings (Kevin Fiala): 2 minutes on the power play +4% VAN
P2 19:17 Hooking on the Canucks (Evander Kane): 2 minutes on the power play +4% LAK
P2 12:23 Holding on the Kings (Alex Turcotte): 2 minutes on the power play +5% VAN
P2 9:47 Holding on the Kings (Kevin Fiala): 2 minutes on the power play +5% VAN
P2 4:12 High sticking on the Canucks (Evander Kane): 2 minutes on the power play +5% LAK
P3 13:51 Tripping on the Canucks (Aatu Räty): 2 minutes on the power play +7% LAK

When it happened

Kings’ 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 Kings were ahead in it, below while the Canucks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 15:21 A Canucks goal came off the board on review (off side)Overturned goals +16% LAK –
2 P1 2:41 Anze Kopitar scored on a snap shot from 33 feetShooting · 12% chance +16% LAK –
3 P2 17:08 Evander Kane scored on a snap shot from 20 feetShooting · 20% chance +15% VAN –
4 P2 9:47 Holding on the Kings (Kevin Fiala): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% VAN –
5 P2 4:12 High sticking on the Canucks (Evander Kane): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% LAK –
6 P3 13:51 Tripping on the Canucks (Aatu Räty): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +7% LAK –
7 P3 11:12 Corey Perry missed the net with a slap shot from 23 feetShooting · 19% chance +6% VAN –
8 OT The Kings won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +49% LAK –

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

Canucks 45% · Kings 55%

Final margin
Kings by 1
Luck in goals
0.8 for the Kings
Luck-adjusted margin
Kings by 0.2
Replay with same day's form
Canucks 47% · Kings 53% 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.

All week 8 2025-26 games · Canucks · Kings

More from week 8, 2025-26

Every game of week 8, 2025-26