luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 10, 2026

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

Maple Leafs at Canadiens, Mar 10, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Canadiens beat the Maple Leafs 3–1, and the replays back it up: with the way both teams actually played, the Canadiens win 8 of 10. The Maple Leafs had the bounces: shooting alone was worth 21 points of win probability to the Maple Leafs.

The biggest swing (P2, 5:27 left): William Nylander scored on a snap shot from 11 feet, worth 13 points of win probability to the Maple Leafs.

Final

Toronto Maple Leafs 1
Montreal Canadiens 3

March 10, 2026 · Centre Bell

Luck index +20 Canadiens about even · −20 Maple Leafs

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. Maple Leafs win 2, Canadiens win 8.

  1. 1 TOR 4 MTL 2
  2. 2 TOR 2 MTL 1
  3. 3 TOR 1 MTL 2
  4. 4 TOR 3 MTL 5
  5. 5 TOR 5 MTL 8
  6. 6 TOR 2 MTL 5
  7. 7 TOR 1 MTL 5
  8. 8 TOR 2 MTL 6
  9. 9 TOR 2 MTL 7
  10. 10 TOR 1 MTL 8

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

Maple Leafs win 20% of them, Canadiens 80%. The line is what actually happened: Canadiens by 2.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Maple Leafs by 3+3.8%
Maple Leafs by 23.8%
Maple Leafs by 112.1%
Canadiens by 113.4%
Canadiens by 211.0%
Canadiens by 3+55.8%

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 Maple Leafs: the final margin was Canadiens by 2, without the luck Canadiens by 3.5. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Maple Leafs2912.01−1.01
Canadiens5024.44−2.44

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 17:25 Interference on the Canadiens (Arber Xhekaj): 2 minutes on the power play +3% TOR
P2 8:05 Holding on the Canadiens (Lane Hutson): 2 minutes on the power play +3% TOR
P3 8:43 High sticking on the Maple Leafs (Matthew Knies): 2 minutes on the power play +5% MTL
P3 6:34 Tripping on the Maple Leafs (Oliver Ekman-Larsson): 2 minutes on the power play +5% MTL

When it happened

Canadiens’ chance of winning

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 Canadiens were ahead in it, below while the Maple Leafs were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 17:57 Zachary Bolduc missed the net with a snap shot from 8 feetShooting · 23% chance +4% TOR –
2 P1 15:14 Oliver Kapanen scored on a snap shot from 6 feetShooting · 27% chance +12% MTL –
3 P1 5:19 Phillip Danault scored on a snap shot from 7 feetShooting · 23% chance +11% MTL –
4 P2 5:27 William Nylander scored on a snap shot from 11 feetShooting · 12% chance +13% TOR –
5 P3 11:48 Bo Groulx’s snap shot from 15 feet was savedShooting · 14% chance +4% MTL –
6 P3 8:43 High sticking on the Maple Leafs (Matthew Knies): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% MTL –
7 P3 6:34 Tripping on the Maple Leafs (Oliver Ekman-Larsson): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% MTL –
8 P3 1:37 John Tavares missed the net with a snap shot from 21 feetShooting · 18% chance +8% MTL –

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

Maple Leafs 3% · Canadiens 97%

Final margin
Canadiens by 2
Luck in goals
1.5 for the Maple Leafs
Luck-adjusted margin
Canadiens by 3.5
Replay with same day's form
Maple Leafs 20% · Canadiens 80% 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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