luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · January 29, 2026 · OT

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

Predators at Devils, Jan 29, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Devils beat the Predators 3–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Devils win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: overtime alone was worth 49 points of win probability to the Devils.

The biggest swing (OT): the Devils won in overtime, worth 49 points of win probability to the Devils.

Final (OT)

Nashville Predators 2
New Jersey Devils 3

January 29, 2026 · Prudential Center

Luck index +50 Devils lucky · −50 Predators

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. Predators win 5, Devils win 5.

  1. 1 NSH 5 NJD 1
  2. 2 NSH 5 NJD 2
  3. 3 NSH 8 NJD 6
  4. 4 NSH 3 NJD 2
  5. 5 NSH 6 NJD 5
  6. 6 NSH 4 NJD 5
  7. 7 NSH 4 NJD 5
  8. 8 NSH 2 NJD 4
  9. 9 NSH 3 NJD 6
  10. 10 NSH 3 NJD 7

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

Predators win 50% of them, Devils 50%. The line is what actually happened: Devils by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Predators by 3+20.1%
Predators by 29.4%
Predators by 120.6%
Devils by 121.8%
Devils by 28.7%
Devils by 3+19.4%

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 +1.0 goals to the Devils: the final margin was Devils by 1, without the luck even. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Predators4923.16−1.16
Devils5723.12−1.12

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
P2 17:10 Slashing on the Predators (Adam Wilsby): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P2 7:51 Slashing on the Devils (Dougie Hamilton): 2 minutes on the power play +5% NSH
P3 13:52 Hooking on the Predators (Cole Smith): 2 minutes on the power play +5% NJD
P3 7:25 Tripping on the Devils (Arseny Gritsyuk): 2 minutes on the power play +8% NSH
P3 4:41 High sticking on the Predators (Cole Smith): 2 minutes on the power play +9% NJD

When it happened

Devils’ chance of winning

As low as 20% 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 Devils were ahead in it, below while the Predators were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 14:53 Michael McCarron scored on a wraparound from 3 feetShooting · 21% chance +13% NSH –
2 P2 9:59 Dougie Hamilton scored on a snap shot from 27 feetShooting · 9% chance +20% NJD –
3 P3 18:26 Filip Forsberg scored on a snap shot from 21 feetShooting · 10% chance +24% NSH –
4 P3 9:18 Jesper Bratt scored on a wrist shot from 8 feetShooting · 7% chance +31% NJD –
5 P3 7:25 Tripping on the Devils (Arseny Gritsyuk): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +8% NSH –
6 P3 6:43 Jonathan Marchessault missed the net with a slap shot from 16 feetShooting · 28% chance +10% NJD –
7 P3 4:41 High sticking on the Predators (Cole Smith): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +9% NJD –
8 OT The Devils won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +49% NJD –

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

Predators 50% · Devils 50%

Final margin
Devils by 1
Luck in goals
1.0 for the Devils
Luck-adjusted margin
even
Replay with same day's form
Predators 50% · Devils 50% 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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