luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · January 31, 2026

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

Blue Jackets at Blues, Jan 31, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Blue Jackets beat the Blues 5–3, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Blue Jackets win 4 of 10. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 36 points of win probability to the Blue Jackets.

The biggest swing (P2, 3:59 left): Damon Severson scored on a slap shot from 46 feet, worth 23 points of win probability to the Blue Jackets.

Final

Columbus Blue Jackets 5
St. Louis Blues 3

January 31, 2026 · Enterprise Center

Luck index +60 Blue Jackets lucky · −60 Blues

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. Blue Jackets win 4, Blues win 6.

  1. 1 CBJ 4 STL 1
  2. 2 CBJ 4 STL 2
  3. 3 CBJ 2 STL 1
  4. 4 CBJ 3 STL 2
  5. 5 CBJ 2 STL 3
  6. 6 CBJ 2 STL 3
  7. 7 CBJ 1 STL 3
  8. 8 CBJ 3 STL 5
  9. 9 CBJ 0 STL 3
  10. 10 CBJ 1 STL 5

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 4,000.3 replays ended

Blue Jackets win 40% of them, Blues 60%. The line is what actually happened: Blue Jackets by 2.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Blue Jackets by 3+10.4%
Blue Jackets by 27.7%
Blue Jackets by 122.2%
Blues by 123.2%
Blues by 212.2%
Blues by 3+24.3%

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 Blue Jackets: the final margin was Blue Jackets by 2, without the luck Blue Jackets by 1.1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Blue Jackets3941.97+2.03
Blues4732.53+0.47

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 17:19 Holding on the Blue Jackets (Cole Sillinger): 2 minutes on the power play +4% STL
P1 6:10 Delaying game puck over glass on the Blues (Nick Bjugstad): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CBJ
P2 18:29 Slashing on the Blue Jackets (Dmitri Voronkov): 2 minutes on the power play +4% STL
P2 11:54 Holding on the Blues (Jordan Kyrou): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CBJ
P3 13:19 Slashing on the Blue Jackets (Mason Marchment): 2 minutes on the power play +5% STL
P3 7:51 Holding on the Blue Jackets (Adam Fantilli): 2 minutes on the power play +6% STL

When it happened

Blues’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 70%. 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 Blues were ahead in it, below while the Blue Jackets were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 12:49 Jimmy Snuggerud scored on a wrist shot from 6 feetShooting · 14% chance +14% STL –
2 P1 12:12 Isac Lundeström scored on a wrist shot from 15 feetShooting · 9% chance +15% CBJ –
3 P1 7:06 Denton Mateychuk scored on a wrist shot from 47 feetShooting · 2% chance +17% CBJ –
4 P2 16:45 Jonatan Berggren scored on a wrist shot from 26 feetShooting · 10% chance +18% STL –
5 P2 11:30 Kent Johnson scored on a tip from 11 feetShooting · 12% chance +19% CBJ –
6 P2 6:25 Tyler Tucker scored on a wrist shot from 55 feetShooting · 1% chance +23% STL –
7 P2 3:59 Damon Severson scored on a slap shot from 46 feetShooting · 5% chance +23% CBJ –
8 P3 4:44 Pavel Buchnevich’s slap shot from 47 feet was savedShooting · 2% chanceNick Bjugstad’s wrist shot from 8 feet was savedShooting · 15% chance +7% CBJ –

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

Blue Jackets 75% · Blues 25%

Final margin
Blue Jackets by 2
Luck in goals
0.9 for the Blue Jackets
Luck-adjusted margin
Blue Jackets by 1.1
Replay with same day's form
Blue Jackets 40% · Blues 60% 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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