luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 20, 2026

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

Devils at Capitals, Mar 20, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Capitals beat the Devils 2–1, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Capitals win 6 of 10. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 51 points of win probability to the Capitals.

The biggest swing (P1, 10:24 left): Ryan Leonard scored on a snap shot from 38 feet, worth 16 points of win probability to the Capitals.

Final

New Jersey Devils 1
Washington Capitals 2

March 20, 2026 · Capital One Arena

Luck index +44 Capitals lucky · −44 Devils

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. Devils win 4, Capitals win 6.

  1. 1 NJD 7 WSH 4
  2. 2 NJD 4 WSH 2
  3. 3 NJD 2 WSH 1
  4. 4 NJD 3 WSH 2
  5. 5 NJD 2 WSH 3
  6. 6 NJD 4 WSH 5
  7. 7 NJD 2 WSH 4
  8. 8 NJD 2 WSH 4
  9. 9 NJD 4 WSH 7
  10. 10 NJD 1 WSH 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

Devils win 44% of them, Capitals 56%. The line is what actually happened: Capitals by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Devils by 3+15.1%
Devils by 28.3%
Devils by 120.9%
Capitals by 120.8%
Capitals by 210.8%
Capitals by 3+24.1%

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 +0.3 goals to the Devils: the final margin was Capitals by 1, without the luck Capitals by 1.3. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Devils5312.85−1.85
Capitals3912.97−1.97

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 15:30 High sticking on the Capitals (Ethen Frank): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P2 1:43 Hooking on the Capitals (Tom Wilson): 2 minutes on the power play +5% NJD
P3 11:22 Hooking on the Devils (Johnathan Kovacevic): 2 minutes on the power play +5% WSH

When it happened

Capitals’ 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 Capitals were ahead in it, below while the Devils were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 10:24 Ryan Leonard scored on a snap shot from 38 feetShooting · 6% chance +16% WSH –
2 P2 15:30 High sticking on the Capitals (Ethen Frank): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% NJD –
3 P2 15:03 Nico Hischier missed the net with a tip from 3 feetShooting · 25% chance +5% WSH –
4 P2 1:43 Hooking on the Capitals (Tom Wilson): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% NJD –
5 P3 14:28 Arseny Gritsyuk’s wrist shot from 17 feet was savedShooting · 2% chanceLenni Hameenaho’s wrist shot from 7 feet was savedShooting · 17% chance +5% WSH –
6 P3 13:55 Dawson Mercer’s slap shot from 13 feet was savedShooting · 14% chance +4% WSH –
7 P3 11:22 Hooking on the Devils (Johnathan Kovacevic): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% WSH –
8 P3 2:04 Jack Hughes missed the net with a slap shot from 23 feetShooting · 13% chance +6% WSH –

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

Devils 25% · Capitals 75%

Final margin
Capitals by 1
Luck in goals
0.3 for the Devils
Luck-adjusted margin
Capitals by 1.3
Replay with same day's form
Devils 44% · Capitals 56% 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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