luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 26, 2026

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

Devils at Predators, Mar 26, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Devils beat the Predators 4–2, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 6 of 10.

The biggest swing (P3, 5:53 left): Nico Hischier scored on a deflected shot from 11 feet, worth 33 points of win probability to the Devils.

Final

New Jersey Devils 4
Nashville Predators 2

March 26, 2026 · Bridgestone Arena

Luck index +38 Devils lucky · −38 Predators

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 6, Predators win 4.

  1. 1 NJD 5 NSH 1
  2. 2 NJD 3 NSH 0
  3. 3 NJD 4 NSH 1
  4. 4 NJD 2 NSH 0
  5. 5 NJD 3 NSH 2
  6. 6 NJD 2 NSH 1
  7. 7 NJD 1 NSH 2
  8. 8 NJD 2 NSH 3
  9. 9 NJD 3 NSH 4
  10. 10 NJD 0 NSH 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 3,999.8 replays ended

Devils win 62% of them, Predators 38%. The line is what actually happened: Devils by 2.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Devils by 3+27.4%
Devils by 213.1%
Devils by 121.3%
Predators by 121.9%
Predators by 27.8%
Predators by 3+8.5%

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 0.0 goals to the Predators: the final margin was Devils by 2, without the luck Devils by 2. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Devils4232.96+0.04
Predators3022.14−0.14

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 16:10 Too many men on the ice on the Predators (NSH): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P3 16:33 Tripping on the Devils (Jonas Siegenthaler): 2 minutes on the power play +6% NSH
P3 9:04 Tripping on the Predators (Fedor Svechkov): 2 minutes on the power play +8% NJD
P3 6:14 Slashing on the Predators (Matthew Wood): 2 minutes on the power play +8% NJD

When it happened

Predators’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 54%. 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 Predators were ahead in it, below while the Devils were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 1:58 Jesper Bratt scored on a tip from 5 feetShooting · 9% chance +17% NJD –
2 P2 14:29 Dawson Mercer’s wrist shot from 2 feet was savedShooting · 50% chance +8% NSH –
3 P2 10:47 Nico Hischier scored on a deflected shot from 5 feetShooting · 8% chance +15% NJD –
4 P2 8:51 Reid Schaefer scored on a wrist shot from 22 feetShooting · 13% chance +14% NSH –
5 P2 7:00 Steven Stamkos scored on a backhand shot from 9 feetShooting · 13% chance +20% NSH –
6 P3 9:04 Tripping on the Predators (Fedor Svechkov): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +8% NJD –
7 P3 6:14 Slashing on the Predators (Matthew Wood): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +8% NJD –
8 P3 5:53 Nico Hischier scored on a deflected shot from 11 feetShooting · 11% chance +33% NJD –

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 89% · Predators 11%

Final margin
Devils by 2
Luck in goals
none
Luck-adjusted margin
Devils by 2.0
Replay with same day's form
Devils 62% · Predators 38% 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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