luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · December 6, 2025 · OT

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

Blue Jackets at Panthers, Dec 6, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Panthers beat the Blue Jackets 7–6, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 7 of 10. The Blue Jackets had the bounces: goaltending alone was worth 55 points of win probability to the Blue Jackets.

The game turned on a luck play (P2, 3:48 left): Seth Jones scored on a snap shot from 45 feet, worth 23 points of win probability to the Panthers. The biggest single swing (OT): the Panthers won in overtime.

Final (OT)

Columbus Blue Jackets 6
Florida Panthers 7

December 6, 2025 · Amerant Bank Arena

Luck index +34 Panthers lucky · −34 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. Blue Jackets win 3, Panthers win 7.

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

Blue Jackets win 34% of them, Panthers 66%. The line is what actually happened: Panthers by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Blue Jackets by 3+7.8%
Blue Jackets by 26.9%
Blue Jackets by 119.2%
Panthers by 119.0%
Panthers by 211.9%
Panthers by 3+35.2%

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 0.0 goals to the Panthers: the final margin was Panthers by 1, without the luck Panthers by 1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Blue Jackets3362.06+3.94
Panthers4663.33+2.67

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 14:18 Slashing on the Panthers (Anton Lundell): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CBJ
P2 8:45 Delaying game unsuccessful challenge on the Blue Jackets (CBJ): 2 minutes on the power play +3% FLA
P2 5:33 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Ivan Provorov): 2 minutes on the power play +5% FLA
P3 13:59 Cross checking on the Blue Jackets (Zach Werenski): 2 minutes on the power play +5% FLA
P3 11:32 Slashing on the Panthers (Aaron Ekblad): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CBJ
P3 7:59 Delaying game puck over glass on the Panthers (Anton Lundell): 2 minutes on the power play +6% CBJ
P3 2:49 Roughing on the Blue Jackets (Brendan Gaunce): 2 minutes on the power play +10% FLA
OT 4:02 Hooking on the Panthers (Sam Reinhart): 2 minutes on the power play +12% CBJ

When it happened

Panthers’ chance of winning

As low as 5% 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 Panthers were ahead in it, below while the Blue Jackets were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 12:20 Damon Severson scored on a tip from 15 feetShooting · 10% chance +15% CBJ –
2 P1 10:13 Evan Rodrigues scored on a wrist shot from 8 feetShooting · 7% chance +16% FLA –
3 P2 14:34 Dmitri Voronkov scored on a tip from 9 feetShooting · 9% chance +19% CBJ –
4 P2 14:03 Miles Wood scored on a backhand shot from 13 feetShooting · 8% chance +15% CBJ –
5 P2 3:48 The game turned hereSeth Jones scored on a snap shot from 45 feetShooting · 5% chance +23% FLA –
6 P2 1:34 Cole Sillinger scored on a wrist shot from 19 feetShooting · 11% chance +22% CBJ –
7 P3 5:42 Anton Lundell scored on a wrist shot from 23 feetShooting · 10% chance +34% FLA –
8 OT The Panthers won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +49% FLA –

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

Blue Jackets 28% · Panthers 72%

Final margin
Panthers by 1
Luck in goals
none
Luck-adjusted margin
Panthers by 1.0
Replay with same day's form
Blue Jackets 34% · Panthers 66% 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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