luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · January 8, 2026

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

Ducks at Hurricanes, Jan 8, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Hurricanes beat the Ducks 5–2, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 6 of 10.

The biggest swing (P2, 3:52 left): Jalen Chatfield scored on a slap shot from 40 feet, worth 22 points of win probability to the Hurricanes.

Final

Anaheim Ducks 2
Carolina Hurricanes 5

January 8, 2026 · Lenovo Center

Luck index +38 Hurricanes lucky · −38 Ducks

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. Ducks win 4, Hurricanes win 6.

  1. 1 ANA 4 CAR 1
  2. 2 ANA 4 CAR 2
  3. 3 ANA 2 CAR 1
  4. 4 ANA 3 CAR 2
  5. 5 ANA 4 CAR 5
  6. 6 ANA 1 CAR 2
  7. 7 ANA 2 CAR 4
  8. 8 ANA 2 CAR 5
  9. 9 ANA 1 CAR 4
  10. 10 ANA 0 CAR 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 3,999.9 replays ended

Ducks win 38% of them, Hurricanes 62%. The line is what actually happened: Hurricanes by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Ducks by 3+11.7%
Ducks by 28.1%
Ducks by 118.5%
Hurricanes by 120.2%
Hurricanes by 211.8%
Hurricanes by 3+29.7%

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 Hurricanes: the final margin was Hurricanes by 3, without the luck Hurricanes by 2.1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Ducks2922.65−0.65
Hurricanes5243.72+0.28

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 18:55 Interference on the Ducks (Radko Gudas): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CAR
P1 11:49 Tripping on the Hurricanes (William Carrier): 2 minutes on the power play +4% ANA
P1 10:10 Delaying game on the Hurricanes (Sean Walker): 2 minutes on the power play +4% ANA
P1 3:55 Tripping on the Ducks (Radko Gudas): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CAR
P2 2:20 Tripping on the Hurricanes (Sean Walker): 2 minutes on the power play +4% ANA

When it happened

Hurricanes’ chance of winning

As low as 30% 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 Hurricanes were ahead in it, below while the Ducks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 6:42 Ryan Poehling scored on a snap shot from 12 feetShooting · 15% chance +15% ANA –
2 P2 15:30 Mark Jankowski’s snap shot from 5 feet was savedShooting · 28% chance +6% ANA –
3 P2 11:04 Mark Jankowski scored on a wrist shot from 6 feetShooting · 22% chance +17% CAR –
4 P2 7:56 Mikael Granlund scored on a tip from 4 feetShooting · 14% chance +19% ANA –
5 P2 5:55 Logan Stankoven scored on a snap shot from 8 feetShooting · 21% chance +18% CAR –
6 P2 3:52 Jalen Chatfield scored on a slap shot from 40 feetShooting · 6% chance +22% CAR –
7 P2 2:20 Tripping on the Hurricanes (Sean Walker): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% ANA –
8 P3 9:21 Jackson Blake scored on a backhand shot from 17 feetShooting · 8% chance +12% CAR –

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

Ducks 10% · Hurricanes 90%

Final margin
Hurricanes by 3
Luck in goals
0.9 for the Hurricanes
Luck-adjusted margin
Hurricanes by 2.1
Replay with same day's form
Ducks 38% · Hurricanes 62% 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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