luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 16, 2026

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

Flames at Red Wings, Mar 16, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Red Wings beat the Flames 5–2, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 7 of 10.

The biggest swing (P1, 2:25 left): Morgan Frost scored on a tip from 18 feet, worth 17 points of win probability to the Flames.

Final

Calgary Flames 2
Detroit Red Wings 5

March 16, 2026 · Little Caesars Arena

Luck index +28 Red Wings lucky · −28 Flames

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. Flames win 3, Red Wings win 7.

  1. 1 CGY 7 DET 4
  2. 2 CGY 3 DET 2
  3. 3 CGY 7 DET 6
  4. 4 CGY 1 DET 2
  5. 5 CGY 2 DET 3
  6. 6 CGY 0 DET 2
  7. 7 CGY 1 DET 4
  8. 8 CGY 1 DET 4
  9. 9 CGY 0 DET 4
  10. 10 CGY 0 DET 6

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

Flames win 28% of them, Red Wings 72%. The line is what actually happened: Red Wings by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Flames by 3+6.1%
Flames by 25.7%
Flames by 116.3%
Red Wings by 118.3%
Red Wings by 211.0%
Red Wings by 3+42.7%

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 Red Wings: the final margin was Red Wings by 3, without the luck Red Wings by 2.2. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Flames3922.14−0.14
Red Wings3643.41+0.59

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 18:10 High sticking on the Flames (Hunter Brzustewicz): 2 minutes on the power play +4% DET
P1 5:26 Slashing on the Flames (Zach Whitecloud): 2 minutes on the power play +4% DET
P2 17:08 Roughing on the Red Wings (Mason Appleton): 2 minutes on the power play +5% CGY
P2 9:19 Slashing on the Flames (Matvei Gridin): 2 minutes on the power play +4% DET
P2 1:32 Interference on the Red Wings (Ben Chiarot): 2 minutes on the power play +2% CGY
P2 0:02 Cross checking on the Flames (Connor Zary): 2 minutes on the power play +2% DET

When it happened

Red Wings’ chance of winning

As low as 34% 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 Red Wings were ahead in it, below while the Flames were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 4:08 Yegor Sharangovich snap, 10 ft: above crossbar (24% chance)Shooting +4% DET –
2 P1 2:25 Morgan Frost scored on a tip from 18 feetShooting · 7% chance +17% CGY –
3 P2 18:57 Patrick Kane scored on a snap shot from 17 feetShooting · 20% chance +15% DET –
4 P2 17:08 Roughing on the Red Wings (Mason Appleton): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% CGY –
5 P2 14:54 Emmitt Finnie scored on a backhand shot from 5 feetShooting · 15% chance +17% DET –
6 P2 13:23 Patrick Kane scored on a tip from 12 feetShooting · 6% chance +14% DET –
7 P2 12:37 Matt Coronato scored on a wrist shot from 34 feetShooting · 5% chance +14% CGY –
8 P2 8:15 Moritz Seider scored on a snap shot from 46 feetShooting · 5% chance +14% DET –

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

Flames 9% · Red Wings 91%

Final margin
Red Wings by 3
Luck in goals
0.8 for the Red Wings
Luck-adjusted margin
Red Wings by 2.2
Replay with same day's form
Flames 28% · Red Wings 72% 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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