2025-26 regular season · December 30, 2025
No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.
Devils at Maple Leafs, Dec 30, 2025: who deserved to win?
The Maple Leafs beat the Devils 4–0, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Maple Leafs win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 34 points of win probability to the Maple Leafs.
The biggest swing (P1, 5:39 left): Bobby McMann scored on a wrist shot from 35 feet, worth 16 points of win probability to the Maple Leafs.
Final
| 0 | |
| 4 |
Replay with same day's form
Luck index +49 Maple Leafs lucky · −49 Devils
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. Devils win 5, Maple Leafs win 5.
- 1 NJD 4 TOR 0
- 2 NJD 4 TOR 1
- 3 NJD 4 TOR 2
- 4 NJD 4 TOR 3
- 5 NJD 2 TOR 1
- 6 NJD 2 TOR 3
- 7 NJD 1 TOR 2
- 8 NJD 3 TOR 5
- 9 NJD 4 TOR 7
- 10 NJD 1 TOR 5
Three other ways to ask
Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.
Before puck drop
No closing line for this game.
Same teams, fresh game
Needs the closing line, which this game has not got.
Only coin-flips re-rolled
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
Devils win 49% of them, Maple Leafs 51%. The line is what actually happened: Maple Leafs by 4.
Show as a table
| Final margin in the replays | Share of replays |
|---|---|
| Devils by 3+ | 18.7% |
| Devils by 2 | 9.5% |
| Devils by 1 | 20.4% |
| Maple Leafs by 1 | 22.0% |
| Maple Leafs by 2 | 10.5% |
| Maple Leafs 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.
| Shooting | Unblocked attempts | Goals | Expected goals | Above expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | 0 | 3.12 | −3.12 | |
| 40 | 3 | 2.66 | +0.34 |
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.
| When | Call | Win probability for |
|---|---|---|
| P1 12:34 | Slashing on the Devils (Cody Glass): 2 minutes on the power play | +4% TOR |
| P1 7:20 | Tripping on the Devils (Stefan Noesen): 2 minutes on the power play | +4% TOR |
| P1 0:31 | Slashing on the Maple Leafs (John Tavares): 2 minutes on the power play | +4% NJD |
| P2 7:37 | Slashing on the Devils (Arseny Gritsyuk): 2 minutes on the power play | +4% TOR |
| P2 3:47 | Holding on the Maple Leafs (Simon Benoit): 2 minutes on the power play | +3% NJD |
| P3 5:41 | Hooking on the Maple Leafs (Matthew Knies): 2 minutes on the power play | 0% NJD |
When it happened
Maple Leafs’ chance of winning
Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.
| # | When | What happened | Win probability for | Next drive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P1 12:34 | Slashing on the Devils (Cody Glass): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls | +4% TOR | – |
| 2 | P1 7:20 | Tripping on the Devils (Stefan Noesen): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls | +4% TOR | – |
| 3 | P1 5:39 | Bobby McMann scored on a wrist shot from 35 feetShooting · 9% chance | +16% TOR | – |
| 4 | P2 8:13 | Cody Glass’s wrist shot from 7 feet was savedShooting · 18% chance | +4% TOR | – |
| 5 | P2 7:37 | Slashing on the Devils (Arseny Gritsyuk): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls | +4% TOR | – |
| 6 | P2 5:36 | Nicolas Roy scored on a tip from 7 feetShooting · 8% chance | +14% TOR | – |
| 7 | P2 2:16 | Nico Hischier’s wrist shot from 4 feet was savedShooting · 39% chance | +6% TOR | – |
| 8 | P3 13:25 | Calle Jarnkrok scored on a wrist shot from 30 feetShooting · 7% chance | +4% TOR | – |
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
Devils 21% · Maple Leafs 79%
- Final margin
- Maple Leafs by 4
- Luck in goals
- 2.4 for the Maple Leafs
- Luck-adjusted margin
- Maple Leafs by 1.6
- Replay with same day's form
- Devils 49% · Maple Leafs 51% unchanged: why
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.
More from week 13, 2025-26
- Bruins at Oilers Dec 31, 2025 · BOS 6–2 · replay 31% for the winner
- Devils at Blue Jackets Dec 31, 2025 · NJD 3–2 · replay 31% for the winner
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- Sabres at Blue Jackets Jan 3, 2026 · CBJ 5–1 · replay 37% for the winner
- Rangers at Panthers Jan 2, 2026 · NYR 5–1 · replay 39% for the winner
- Bruins at Canucks Jan 3, 2026 · BOS 3–2 OT · replay 41% for the winner
- Red Wings at Penguins Jan 1, 2026 · PIT 4–3 OT · replay 42% for the winner
- Canadiens at Blues Jan 3, 2026 · STL 2–0 · replay 45% for the winner
- Blackhawks at Capitals Jan 3, 2026 · CHI 3–2 SO · replay 45% for the winner
- Avalanche at Panthers Jan 4, 2026 · FLA 2–1 · replay 45% for the winner
- Maple Leafs at Islanders Jan 3, 2026 · NYI 4–3 OT · replay 45% for the winner
- Canadiens at Hurricanes Jan 1, 2026 · MTL 7–5 · replay 45% for the winner