luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 29, 2026

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

Blackhawks at Devils, Mar 29, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Devils beat the Blackhawks 5–3, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 7 of 10.

The biggest swing (P3, 5:28 left): Dougie Hamilton scored on a snap shot from 30 feet, worth 36 points of win probability to the Devils.

Final

Chicago Blackhawks 3
New Jersey Devils 5

March 29, 2026 · Prudential Center

Luck index +34 Devils lucky · −34 Blackhawks

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. Blackhawks win 3, Devils win 7.

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

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 4,000.1 replays ended

Blackhawks win 34% of them, Devils 66%. The line is what actually happened: Devils by 2.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Blackhawks by 3+11.6%
Blackhawks by 26.2%
Blackhawks by 115.9%
Devils by 115.6%
Devils by 210.4%
Devils by 3+40.4%

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 0.0 goals to the Blackhawks: 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
Blackhawks5033.63−0.63
Devils6645.10−1.10

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 9:05 Tripping on the Blackhawks (Wyatt Kaiser): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P2 18:25 Interference on the Blackhawks (Kevin Korchinski): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NJD
P2 0:03 Hooking on the Devils (Lenni Hameenaho): 2 minutes on the power play +6% CHI
P3 11:06 High sticking on the Devils (Nick Bjugstad): 2 minutes on the power play +7% CHI
P3 10:02 Tripping on the Devils (Cody Glass): 2 minutes on the power play +7% CHI

When it happened

Devils’ chance of winning

As low as 14% 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 Devils were ahead in it, below while the Blackhawks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 15:41 Ilya Mikheyev scored on a wrist shot from 8 feetShooting · 15% chance +14% CHI –
2 P1 8:45 Connor Brown scored on a deflected shot from 21 feetShooting · 9% chance +16% NJD –
3 P1 6:49 Frank Nazar scored on a wrist shot from 5 feetShooting · 18% chance +15% CHI –
4 P2 4:12 Simon Nemec scored on a snap shot from 31 feetShooting · 10% chance +21% NJD –
5 P3 9:09 Frank Nazar scored on a slap shot from 26 feetShooting · 9% chance +30% CHI –
6 P3 5:28 Dougie Hamilton scored on a snap shot from 30 feetShooting · 5% chance +36% NJD –
7 P3 5:09 Jack Hughes scored on a wrist shot from 26 feetShooting · 8% chance +35% NJD –
8 P3 1:03 Ryan Donato’s wrist shot from 10 feet was savedShooting · 18% chance +8% 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

Blackhawks 16% · Devils 84%

Final margin
Devils by 2
Luck in goals
none
Luck-adjusted margin
Devils by 2.0
Replay with same day's form
Blackhawks 34% · Devils 66% 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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