luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 14, 2026 · SO

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

Bruins at Capitals, Mar 14, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Bruins beat the Capitals 3–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Bruins win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: shootout alone was worth 50 points of win probability to the Bruins.

The game turned on a luck play (SO): the Bruins won the shootout, worth 50 points of win probability to the Bruins.

Final (SO)

Boston Bruins 3
Washington Capitals 2

March 14, 2026 · Capital One Arena

Luck index +50 Bruins lucky · −50 Capitals

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. Bruins win 5, Capitals win 5.

  1. 1 BOS 5 WSH 1
  2. 2 BOS 4 WSH 1
  3. 3 BOS 6 WSH 4
  4. 4 BOS 1 WSH 0
  5. 5 BOS 4 WSH 3
  6. 6 BOS 3 WSH 4
  7. 7 BOS 1 WSH 2
  8. 8 BOS 0 WSH 2
  9. 9 BOS 1 WSH 4
  10. 10 BOS 1 WSH 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 4,000.2 replays ended

Bruins win 50% of them, Capitals 50%. The line is what actually happened: Bruins by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Bruins by 3+18.9%
Bruins by 29.4%
Bruins by 121.7%
Capitals by 120.2%
Capitals by 210.3%
Capitals by 3+19.4%

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 Bruins: the final margin was Bruins by 1, without the luck Bruins by 0.1. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Bruins4522.84−0.84
Capitals3822.73−0.73

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 4:20 Holding on the Bruins (Charlie McAvoy): 2 minutes on the power play +4% WSH
P2 17:40 Hooking on the Capitals (Anthony Beauvillier): 2 minutes on the power play +4% BOS
P3 16:01 Interference on the Capitals (Tom Wilson): 2 minutes on the power play +5% BOS
P3 14:40 Cross checking on the Capitals (Anthony Beauvillier): 2 minutes on the power play +5% BOS
P3 5:54 Boarding on the Bruins (Nikita Zadorov): 2 minutes on the power play +9% WSH
P3 3:20 Holding on the Bruins (Hampus Lindholm): 2 minutes on the power play +9% WSH
P3 1:15 Interference on the Capitals (Connor McMichael): 2 minutes on the power play +10% BOS

When it happened

Capitals’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 82%. 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 Capitals were ahead in it, below while the Bruins were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P2 18:45 Matt Roy scored on a slap shot from 45 feetShooting · 3% chance +18% WSH –
2 P2 8:03 Charlie McAvoy scored on a slap shot from 58 feetShooting · 2% chance +21% BOS –
3 P3 16:48 Rasmus Sandin scored on a slap shot from 69 feetShooting · 1% chance +26% WSH –
4 P3 9:51 Charlie McAvoy scored on a tip from 15 feetShooting · 8% chance +29% BOS –
5 P3 3:59 Pierre-Luc Dubois’s snap shot from 7 feet was savedShooting · 25% chance +10% BOS –
6 P3 3:20 Holding on the Bruins (Hampus Lindholm): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +9% WSH –
7 P3 1:15 Interference on the Capitals (Connor McMichael): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +10% BOS –
8 SO The game turned hereThe Bruins won the shootoutShootout · shootouts are close to coin flips +49% BOS –

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

Bruins 52% · Capitals 48%

Final margin
Bruins by 1
Luck in goals
0.9 for the Bruins
Luck-adjusted margin
Bruins by 0.1
Replay with same day's form
Bruins 50% · Capitals 50% 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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