luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · December 30, 2025 · OT

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

Canadiens at Panthers, Dec 30, 2025: who deserved to win?

The Canadiens beat the Panthers 3–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Canadiens win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: overtime alone was worth 51 points of win probability to the Canadiens.

The game turned on a luck play (OT): the Canadiens won in overtime, worth 51 points of win probability to the Canadiens.

Final (OT)

Montreal Canadiens 3
Florida Panthers 2

December 30, 2025 · Amerant Bank Arena

Luck index +51 Canadiens lucky · −51 Panthers

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 5, Panthers win 5.

  1. 1 MTL 5 FLA 1
  2. 2 MTL 3 FLA 0
  3. 3 MTL 4 FLA 2
  4. 4 MTL 3 FLA 2
  5. 5 MTL 3 FLA 2
  6. 6 MTL 5 FLA 6
  7. 7 MTL 4 FLA 5
  8. 8 MTL 2 FLA 4
  9. 9 MTL 0 FLA 3
  10. 10 MTL 0 FLA 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 3,999.8 replays ended

Canadiens win 49% of them, Panthers 51%. The line is what actually happened: Canadiens by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Canadiens by 3+18.7%
Canadiens by 29.5%
Canadiens by 120.5%
Panthers by 120.6%
Panthers by 210.8%
Panthers by 3+19.9%

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 +0.9 goals to the Canadiens: the final margin was Canadiens by 1, without the luck Canadiens by 0.1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Canadiens4322.95−0.95
Panthers3722.76−0.76

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 15:09 High sticking on the Panthers (Uvis Balinskis): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MTL
P2 14:59 Cross checking on the Panthers (Aaron Ekblad): 2 minutes on the power play +5% MTL
P2 6:45 Cross checking on the Canadiens (Lane Hutson): 2 minutes on the power play +5% FLA
P2 4:23 Hooking on the Canadiens (Nick Suzuki): 2 minutes on the power play +5% FLA
P3 18:20 Interference on the Canadiens (Adam Engstrom): 2 minutes on the power play +6% FLA
P3 15:43 Tripping on the Panthers (Gustav Forsling): 2 minutes on the power play +6% MTL
P3 10:05 Tripping on the Canadiens (Juraj Slafkovský): 2 minutes on the power play +7% FLA
OT 3:33 Roughing on the Panthers (Brad Marchand): 2 minutes on the power play +12% MTL

When it happened

Panthers’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 99%. 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 Canadiens were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P3 10:05 Tripping on the Canadiens (Juraj Slafkovský): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +7% FLA –
2 P3 9:42 Brad Marchand scored on a snap shot from 41 feetShooting · 7% chance +30% FLA –
3 P3 7:20 Nick Suzuki’s snap shot from 9 feet was savedShooting · 24% chance +8% FLA –
4 P3 4:59 Sam Reinhart scored on a wrist shot from 37 feetShooting · 1% chance +9% FLA –
5 P3 4:27 Cole Caufield scored on a wrist shot from 15 feetShooting · 10% chance +8% MTL –
6 P3 1:22 Nick Suzuki scored on a slap shot from 41 feetShooting · 6% chance +41% MTL –
7 OT The game turned hereThe Canadiens won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +51% MTL –
8 OT 3:33 Roughing on the Panthers (Brad Marchand): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +12% 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 53% · Panthers 47%

Final margin
Canadiens by 1
Luck in goals
0.9 for the Canadiens
Luck-adjusted margin
Canadiens by 0.1
Replay with same day's form
Canadiens 49% · Panthers 51% 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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