luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · April 2, 2026

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

Capitals at Devils, Apr 2, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Devils beat the Capitals 7–3, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Devils win 4 of 10. Luck ran their way: shooting alone was worth 37 points of win probability to the Devils.

The biggest swing (P1, 1:41 left): Dougie Hamilton scored on a slap shot from 58 feet, worth 18 points of win probability to the Devils.

Final

Washington Capitals 3
New Jersey Devils 7

April 2, 2026 · Prudential Center

Luck index +55 Devils lucky · −55 Capitals

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. Capitals win 6, Devils win 4.

  1. 1 WSH 6 NJD 2
  2. 2 WSH 5 NJD 2
  3. 3 WSH 4 NJD 2
  4. 4 WSH 3 NJD 1
  5. 5 WSH 1 NJD 0
  6. 6 WSH 2 NJD 1
  7. 7 WSH 1 NJD 2
  8. 8 WSH 0 NJD 1
  9. 9 WSH 1 NJD 3
  10. 10 WSH 1 NJD 4

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 replays ended

Capitals win 55% of them, Devils 45%. The line is what actually happened: Devils by 4.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Capitals by 3+23.1%
Capitals by 211.0%
Capitals by 121.0%
Devils by 123.4%
Devils by 28.9%
Devils by 3+12.7%

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 +3.5 goals to the Devils: the final margin was Devils by 4, without the luck Devils by 0.5. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Capitals4933.05−0.05
Devils3862.12+3.88

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 10:39 Tripping on the Devils (Brenden Dillon): 2 minutes on the power play +3% WSH
P2 14:54 Slashing on the Devils (Timo Meier): 2 minutes on the power play +4% WSH
P3 17:44 Tripping on the Capitals (Ryan Leonard): 2 minutes on the power play +2% NJD
P3 15:15 Tripping on the Devils (Nico Hischier): 2 minutes on the power play +2% WSH
P3 8:38 Hooking on the Capitals (David Kampf): 2 minutes on the power play +2% NJD

When it happened

Devils’ 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 Devils were ahead in it, below while the Capitals were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 14:38 Cody Glass scored on a wrist shot from 16 feetShooting · 12% chance +14% NJD –
2 P1 12:23 Dawson Mercer scored on a backhand shot from 8 feetShooting · 9% chance +12% NJD –
3 P1 11:45 Cole Hutson scored on a wrist shot from 22 feetShooting · 11% chance +12% WSH –
4 P1 10:13 Pierre-Luc Dubois scored on a wrist shot from 8 feetShooting · 19% chance +13% WSH –
5 P1 2:58 Hendrix Lapierre missed the net with a wrist shot from 5 feetShooting · 24% chance +4% NJD –
6 P1 1:41 Dougie Hamilton scored on a slap shot from 58 feetShooting · 2% chance +18% NJD –
7 P2 14:54 Slashing on the Devils (Timo Meier): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +4% WSH –
8 P2 10:50 Jack Hughes scored on a wrist shot from 22 feetShooting · 8% chance +13% 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

Capitals 42% · Devils 58%

Final margin
Devils by 4
Luck in goals
3.5 for the Devils
Luck-adjusted margin
Devils by 0.5
Replay with same day's form
Capitals 55% · Devils 45% 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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