luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 12, 2026 · OT

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

Blue Jackets at Panthers, Mar 12, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Panthers beat the Blue Jackets 2–1, but the replays lean toward the Blue Jackets: they take 7 of 10 with the same day's form. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 53 points of win probability to the Panthers.

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

Final (OT)

Columbus Blue Jackets 1
Florida Panthers 2

March 12, 2026 · Amerant Bank Arena

Luck index +70 Panthers very lucky · −70 Blue Jackets

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 7, Panthers win 3.

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

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

Blue Jackets win 70% of them, Panthers 30%. The line is what actually happened: Panthers by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Blue Jackets by 3+36.9%
Blue Jackets by 213.9%
Blue Jackets by 119.5%
Panthers by 119.3%
Panthers by 25.7%
Panthers by 3+4.8%

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 +2.3 goals to the Panthers: the final margin was Panthers by 1, without the luck Blue Jackets by 1.3. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Blue Jackets4114.07−3.07
Panthers4012.24−1.24

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 2:47 Interference on the Panthers (Eetu Luostarinen): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CBJ
P2 9:03 Interference on the Panthers (Donovan Sebrango): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CBJ
P2 0:00 Holding on the Blue Jackets (Damon Severson): 2 minutes on the power play +5% FLA
OT 4:12 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Adam Fantilli): 2 minutes on the power play +12% FLA

When it happened

Panthers’ chance of winning

As low as 26% 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 Panthers were ahead in it, below while the Blue Jackets were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 4:02 Mason Marchment’s snap shot from 3 feet was savedShooting · 39% chance +7% FLA –
2 P2 6:59 Adam Fantilli scored on a wrist shot from 30 feetShooting · 6% chance +21% CBJ –
3 P3 18:32 Sam Bennett scored on a snap shot from 5 feetShooting · 28% chance +19% FLA –
4 P3 6:50 Mathieu Olivier’s snap shot from 6 feet was savedShooting · 33% chance +12% FLA –
5 P3 6:49 Denton Mateychuk’s poke shot from 5 feet was savedShooting · 16% chance +6% FLA –
6 P3 5:42 Adam Fantilli’s snap shot from 9 feet was savedShooting · 26% chance +10% FLA –
7 OT The Panthers won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +49% FLA –
8 OT 4:12 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Adam Fantilli): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +12% FLA –

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 79% · Panthers 21%

Final margin
Panthers by 1
Luck in goals
2.3 for the Panthers
Luck-adjusted margin
Blue Jackets by 1.3
Replay with same day's form
Blue Jackets 70% · Panthers 30% 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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