luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 28, 2026

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

Sharks at Blue Jackets, Mar 28, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Sharks beat the Blue Jackets 3–2, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 7 of 10.

The game turned on a luck play (P3, 19:03 left): Macklin Celebrini scored on a slap shot from 56 feet, worth 24 points of win probability to the Sharks. The biggest single swing (P3, 1:25 left): Igor Chernyshov scored on a snap shot from 31 feet.

Final

San Jose Sharks 3
Columbus Blue Jackets 2

March 28, 2026 · Nationwide Arena

Luck index +34 Sharks lucky · −34 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. Sharks win 7, Blue Jackets win 3.

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

Sharks win 66% of them, Blue Jackets 34%. The line is what actually happened: Sharks by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Sharks by 3+35.5%
Sharks by 211.1%
Sharks by 119.4%
Blue Jackets by 118.4%
Blue Jackets by 26.7%
Blue Jackets by 3+9.0%

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 +0.7 goals to the Blue Jackets: the final margin was Sharks by 1, without the luck Sharks by 1.7. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Sharks5033.84−0.84
Blue Jackets3522.46−0.46

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 16:55 Hooking on the Blue Jackets (Boone Jenner): 2 minutes on the power play +5% SJS
P2 5:15 Holding on the Sharks (Zack Ostapchuk): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CBJ
P3 19:06 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Charlie Coyle): 2 minutes on the power play +5% SJS

When it happened

Blue Jackets’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 78%. 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 Blue Jackets were ahead in it, below while the Sharks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 19:29 Denton Mateychuk scored on a wrist shot from 30 feetShooting · 7% chance +14% CBJ –
2 P1 2:43 Igor Chernyshov scored on a snap shot from 26 feetShooting · 10% chance +16% SJS –
3 P2 7:51 Cole Sillinger scored on a snap shot from 27 feetShooting · 11% chance +19% CBJ –
4 P2 0:05 Kiefer Sherwood’s snap shot from 10 feet was savedShooting · 22% chance +6% CBJ –
5 P3 19:06 Tripping on the Blue Jackets (Charlie Coyle): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% SJS –
6 P3 19:03 The game turned hereMacklin Celebrini scored on a slap shot from 56 feetShooting · 4% chance +24% SJS –
7 P3 6:57 Kirill Marchenko’s snap shot from 22 feet was savedShooting · 18% chance +6% SJS –
8 P3 1:25 Igor Chernyshov scored on a snap shot from 31 feetShooting · 6% chance +42% SJS –

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

Sharks 79% · Blue Jackets 21%

Final margin
Sharks by 1
Luck in goals
0.7 for the Blue Jackets
Luck-adjusted margin
Sharks by 1.7
Replay with same day's form
Sharks 66% · Blue Jackets 34% 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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