luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 10, 2026 · SO

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

Penguins at Hurricanes, Mar 10, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Hurricanes beat the Penguins 5–4, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 7 of 10. The Penguins had the bounces: goaltending alone was worth 16 points of win probability to the Penguins.

The biggest swing (SO): the Hurricanes won the shootout, worth 51 points of win probability to the Hurricanes.

Final (SO)

Pittsburgh Penguins 4
Carolina Hurricanes 5

March 10, 2026 · Lenovo Center

Luck index +30 Hurricanes lucky · −30 Penguins

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. Penguins win 3, Hurricanes win 7.

  1. 1 PIT 7 CAR 4
  2. 2 PIT 7 CAR 5
  3. 3 PIT 3 CAR 2
  4. 4 PIT 4 CAR 5
  5. 5 PIT 2 CAR 3
  6. 6 PIT 3 CAR 6
  7. 7 PIT 3 CAR 6
  8. 8 PIT 3 CAR 7
  9. 9 PIT 2 CAR 7
  10. 10 PIT 2 CAR 9

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 replays ended

Penguins win 30% of them, Hurricanes 70%. The line is what actually happened: Hurricanes by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Penguins by 3+10.2%
Penguins by 26.0%
Penguins by 114.1%
Hurricanes by 115.1%
Hurricanes by 29.3%
Hurricanes by 3+45.3%

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 +0.2 goals to the Penguins: the final margin was Hurricanes by 1, without the luck Hurricanes by 1.2. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Penguins4743.60+0.40
Hurricanes6245.19−1.19

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 18:44 Delaying game puck over glass on the Penguins (Connor Clifton): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CAR
P1 6:07 Tripping on the Hurricanes (Jackson Blake): 2 minutes on the power play +4% PIT
P2 16:31 High sticking on the Hurricanes (Andrei Svechnikov): 2 minutes on the power play +5% PIT
P2 12:27 High sticking on the Hurricanes (Andrei Svechnikov): 2 minutes on the power play +5% PIT
P2 9:37 Closing hand on puck on the Hurricanes (William Carrier): 2 minutes on the power play +5% PIT
P2 6:43 Holding on the Penguins (Parker Wotherspoon): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CAR
P3 10:39 Cross checking on the Penguins (Ryan Shea): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CAR
P3 9:07 Tripping on the Penguins (Parker Wotherspoon): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CAR
P3 8:18 Tripping on the Penguins (Kris Letang): 2 minutes on the power play +2% CAR
OT 2:29 Slashing on the Hurricanes (Jaccob Slavin): 2 minutes on the power play +12% PIT

When it happened

Hurricanes’ chance of winning

As low as 25% 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 Hurricanes were ahead in it, below while the Penguins were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 12:14 Logan Stankoven scored on a snap shot from 15 feetShooting · 16% chance +14% CAR –
2 P1 0:56 Anthony Mantha scored on a snap shot from 34 feetShooting · 11% chance +16% PIT –
3 P2 8:16 Bryan Rust scored on a snap shot from 13 feetShooting · 11% chance +20% PIT –
4 P3 17:45 Jackson Blake’s snap shot from 3 feet was savedShooting · 48% chance +13% PIT –
5 P3 17:11 Mark Jankowski scored on a backhand shot from 17 feetShooting · 10% chance +25% CAR –
6 P3 16:12 Seth Jarvis scored on a snap shot from 9 feetShooting · 22% chance +21% CAR –
7 P3 0:36 Bryan Rust scored on a snap shot from 17 feetShooting · 12% chance +40% PIT –
8 SO The Hurricanes won the shootoutShootout · shootouts are close to coin flips +51% CAR –

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

Penguins 29% · Hurricanes 71%

Final margin
Hurricanes by 1
Luck in goals
0.2 for the Penguins
Luck-adjusted margin
Hurricanes by 1.2
Replay with same day's form
Penguins 30% · Hurricanes 70% 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 23 2025-26 games · Penguins · Hurricanes

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