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.

Sharks at Flames, Jan 31, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Flames beat the Sharks 3–2, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 7 of 10. The Sharks had the bounces: shooting alone was worth 18 points of win probability to the Sharks.

The biggest swing (P3, 13:07 left): Joel Farabee scored on a backhand shot from 9 feet, worth 26 points of win probability to the Flames.

Final

San Jose Sharks 2
Calgary Flames 3

January 31, 2026 · Scotiabank Saddledome

Luck index +31 Flames lucky · −31 Sharks

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. Sharks win 3, Flames win 7.

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

Sharks win 31% of them, Flames 69%. The line is what actually happened: Flames by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Sharks by 3+9.2%
Sharks by 26.5%
Sharks by 115.7%
Flames by 117.2%
Flames by 210.7%
Flames by 3+40.7%

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 Sharks: the final margin was Flames by 1, without the luck Flames by 1.8. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Sharks3522.96−0.96
Flames6134.50−1.50

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 17:22 Interference on the Flames (Brayden Pachal): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SJS
P1 7:05 High sticking on the Sharks (John Klingberg): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CGY
P1 5:42 Tripping on the Sharks (Zack Ostapchuk): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CGY
P1 1:07 Boarding on the Flames (Martin Pospisil): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SJS
P2 7:22 Hooking on the Sharks (Dmitry Orlov): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CGY
P2 1:00 Tripping on the Sharks (Mario Ferraro): 2 minutes on the power play +6% CGY
P3 15:14 Roughing on the Sharks (Zack Ostapchuk): 2 minutes on the power play +7% CGY
P3 13:22 Slashing on the Flames (Nazem Kadri): 2 minutes on the power play +7% SJS
P3 7:26 Interference on the Flames (Zach Whitecloud): 2 minutes on the power play +5% SJS
P3 2:41 Too many men on the ice on the Sharks (SJS): 2 minutes on the power play +6% CGY

When it happened

Flames’ chance of winning

As low as 32% 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 Flames were ahead in it, below while the Sharks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 16:49 Will Smith scored on a snap shot from 11 feetShooting · 21% chance +13% SJS –
2 P1 5:16 Morgan Frost scored on a snap shot from 7 feetShooting · 31% chance +13% CGY –
3 P2 18:39 Adam Gaudette scored on a wrist shot from 4 feetShooting · 18% chance +16% SJS –
4 P2 13:01 Matvei Gridin scored on a snap shot from 31 feetShooting · 10% chance +19% CGY –
5 P3 15:14 Roughing on the Sharks (Zack Ostapchuk): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +7% CGY –
6 P3 13:22 Slashing on the Flames (Nazem Kadri): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +7% SJS –
7 P3 13:07 Joel Farabee scored on a backhand shot from 9 feetShooting · 11% chance +26% CGY –
8 P3 0:27 Macklin Celebrini’s snap shot from 23 feet was savedShooting · 18% chance +8% CGY –

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

Sharks 20% · Flames 80%

Final margin
Flames by 1
Luck in goals
0.8 for the Sharks
Luck-adjusted margin
Flames by 1.8
Replay with same day's form
Sharks 31% · Flames 69% 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.

All week 17 2025-26 games · Sharks · Flames

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