luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · March 31, 2026

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

Senators at Panthers, Mar 31, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Panthers beat the Senators 6–3, and the replays lean their way: with the same day's form, they win 8 of 10.

The biggest swing (P1, 19:52 left): Noah Gregor scored on a snap shot from 15 feet, worth 13 points of win probability to the Panthers.

Final

Ottawa Senators 3
Florida Panthers 6

March 31, 2026 · Amerant Bank Arena

Luck index +23 Panthers about even · −23 Senators

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. Senators win 2, Panthers win 8.

  1. 1 OTT 5 FLA 3
  2. 2 OTT 2 FLA 1
  3. 3 OTT 5 FLA 6
  4. 4 OTT 3 FLA 5
  5. 5 OTT 3 FLA 6
  6. 6 OTT 4 FLA 7
  7. 7 OTT 4 FLA 8
  8. 8 OTT 2 FLA 6
  9. 9 OTT 2 FLA 7
  10. 10 OTT 1 FLA 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 4,000.2 replays ended

Senators win 23% of them, Panthers 77%. The line is what actually happened: Panthers by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Senators by 3+4.4%
Senators by 24.9%
Senators by 113.8%
Panthers by 113.0%
Panthers by 210.1%
Panthers by 3+53.9%

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 +0.4 goals to the Panthers: the final margin was Panthers by 3, without the luck Panthers by 2.6. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Senators4532.86+0.14
Panthers5164.65+1.35

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 19:45 High sticking on the Senators (Shane Pinto): 2 minutes on the power play +3% FLA
P1 13:55 High sticking on the Senators (Artem Zub): 2 minutes on the power play +3% FLA
P1 12:47 High sticking on the Senators (Tyler Kleven): 2 minutes on the power play +3% FLA
P2 13:56 Hooking on the Panthers (Sam Bennett): 2 minutes on the power play +1% OTT
P2 11:05 Hooking on the Panthers (Dmitry Kulikov): 2 minutes on the power play 0% OTT
P2 0:05 Slashing on the Panthers (Vinnie Hinostroza): 2 minutes on the power play 0% OTT
P3 8:34 Match penalty on the Panthers (Noah Gregor): 5 minutes on the power play +1% OTT
P3 4:38 Tripping on the Panthers (Gustav Forsling): 2 minutes on the power play 0% OTT

When it happened

Panthers’ 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 Panthers were ahead in it, below while the Senators were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 19:52 Noah Gregor scored on a snap shot from 15 feetShooting · 17% chance +13% FLA –
2 P1 19:45 High sticking on the Senators (Shane Pinto): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +3% FLA –
3 P1 18:54 Mackie Samoskevich scored on a snap shot from 13 feetShooting · 14% chance +11% FLA –
4 P1 13:55 High sticking on the Senators (Artem Zub): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +3% FLA –
5 P1 12:47 High sticking on the Senators (Tyler Kleven): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +3% FLA –
6 P1 11:45 Sam Bennett’s snap shot from 20 feet was savedShooting · 26% chance +2% OTT –
7 P1 10:51 Carter Verhaeghe scored on a snap shot from 12 feetShooting · 8% chance +8% FLA –
8 P1 5:58 A.J. Greer scored on a wrist shot from 24 feetShooting · 7% chance +4% FLA –

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

Senators 9% · Panthers 91%

Final margin
Panthers by 3
Luck in goals
0.4 for the Panthers
Luck-adjusted margin
Panthers by 2.6
Replay with same day's form
Senators 23% · Panthers 77% 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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