luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · January 21, 2026

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

Islanders at Kraken, Jan 21, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Kraken beat the Islanders 4–1, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Kraken win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 28 points of win probability to the Kraken.

The biggest swing (P2, 6:23 left): Vince Dunn scored on a wrist shot from 22 feet, worth 19 points of win probability to the Kraken.

Final

New York Islanders 1
Seattle Kraken 4

January 21, 2026 · Climate Pledge Arena

Luck index +55 Kraken lucky · −55 Islanders

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. Islanders win 5, Kraken win 5.

  1. 1 NYI 4 SEA 0
  2. 2 NYI 4 SEA 1
  3. 3 NYI 2 SEA 0
  4. 4 NYI 3 SEA 2
  5. 5 NYI 3 SEA 2
  6. 6 NYI 2 SEA 3
  7. 7 NYI 4 SEA 5
  8. 8 NYI 3 SEA 4
  9. 9 NYI 2 SEA 5
  10. 10 NYI 1 SEA 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 4,000.1 replays ended

Islanders win 55% of them, Kraken 45%. The line is what actually happened: Kraken by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Islanders by 3+23.5%
Islanders by 211.1%
Islanders by 120.2%
Kraken by 121.4%
Kraken by 28.7%
Kraken by 3+15.1%

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 +1.5 goals to the Kraken: the final margin was Kraken by 3, without the luck Kraken by 1.5. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Islanders4212.99−1.99
Kraken4132.65+0.35

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 17:41 Hooking on the Kraken (Frederick Gaudreau): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NYI
P1 15:48 Tripping on the Kraken (Ryan Lindgren): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NYI
P1 13:53 High sticking on the Kraken (Brandon Montour): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NYI
P1 11:12 Too many men on the ice on the Islanders (NYI): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SEA
P1 10:24 Tripping on the Islanders (Simon Holmstrom): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SEA
P1 3:29 Hooking on the Kraken (Berkly Catton): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NYI
P2 5:42 Cross checking on the Kraken (Jamie Oleksiak): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NYI
P2 5:34 Slashing on the Islanders (Anthony Duclair): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SEA
P2 2:51 Slashing on the Kraken (Ryan Winterton): 2 minutes on the power play +2% NYI
P3 19:25 Hooking on the Islanders (Anders Lee): 2 minutes on the power play +2% SEA
P3 16:58 Slashing on the Kraken (Chandler Stephenson): 2 minutes on the power play +2% NYI

When it happened

Kraken’ chance of winning

As low as 36% 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 Kraken were ahead in it, below while the Islanders were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 17:22 Anthony Duclair scored on a snap shot from 27 feetShooting · 13% chance +14% NYI –
2 P1 10:51 Jordan Eberle missed the net with a snap shot from 7 feetShooting · 29% chance +5% NYI –
3 P1 9:20 Matty Beniers scored on a tip from 10 feetShooting · 11% chance +15% SEA –
4 P2 10:21 Mathew Barzal missed the net with a wrist shot from 4 feetShooting · 26% chance +6% SEA –
5 P2 6:23 Vince Dunn scored on a wrist shot from 22 feetShooting · 12% chance +19% SEA –
6 P2 5:42 Cross checking on the Kraken (Jamie Oleksiak): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% NYI –
7 P2 5:34 Slashing on the Islanders (Anthony Duclair): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% SEA –
8 P2 3:32 Kaapo Kakko scored on a wrist shot from 29 feetShooting · 7% chance +14% SEA –

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

Islanders 19% · Kraken 81%

Final margin
Kraken by 3
Luck in goals
1.5 for the Kraken
Luck-adjusted margin
Kraken by 1.5
Replay with same day's form
Islanders 55% · Kraken 45% 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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