luckadjusted
NHL Week 6 · 2026-27

2026-27 regular season · October 15, 2026 · SO

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

Sharks at Predators, Oct 15, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Sharks beat the Predators 3–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Sharks win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: shootout alone was worth 50 points of win probability to the Sharks.

The game turned on a luck play (SO): the Sharks won the shootout, worth 50 points of win probability to the Sharks.

Final (SO)

San Jose Sharks 3
Nashville Predators 2

October 15, 2026 · Bridgestone Arena

Our prediction before puck drop: Predators by 0.4

Luck index +47 Sharks lucky · −47 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. Sharks win 5, Predators win 5.

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

Our prediction before puck drop

We had the Predators by 0.4, 56% to win. The Sharks won by 1, a result we gave 44%. The final margin was 1.4 goals from ours; 59% of games like this end further from the forecast than that.

Show as a table
OutcomeChance
Sharks win43.6%
Predators win56.4%
Middle 50%: Sharks by 1 to Predators by 250%
Middle 90%: Sharks by 4 to Predators by 490%
Middle 95%: Sharks by 4 to Predators by 595%
Exactly Predators by 121.9%
Exactly Sharks by 119.0%
Exactly Predators by 313.8%
Exactly Predators by 210.7%
Exactly Sharks by 39.6%

Most of the distance between a forecast and a final score is luck: a hot goalie, a post or a deflection moves a hockey score more than anything known before the game. Made Thu, Oct 15, 11:30 am ET and frozen at puck drop. How our predictions have done

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

Sharks win 53% of them, Predators 47%. The line is what actually happened: Sharks by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Sharks by 3+20.0%
Sharks by 210.7%
Sharks by 122.0%
Predators by 122.2%
Predators by 29.6%
Predators by 3+15.5%

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 +0.8 goals to the Sharks: the final margin was Sharks by 1, without the luck Sharks by 0.2. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Sharks4422.82−0.82
Predators5323.23−1.23

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 7:54 Hooking on the Predators (Nicolas Hague): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SJS
P1 5:08 High sticking double minor on the Sharks (Zack Ostapchuk): 4 minutes on the power play +8% NSH
P2 13:14 Interference on the Sharks (Igor Chernyshov): 2 minutes on the power play +4% NSH
P2 10:25 Hooking on the Predators (Reid Schaefer): 2 minutes on the power play +4% SJS
P2 1:20 High sticking on the Predators (Reid Schaefer): 2 minutes on the power play +5% SJS
P3 11:57 Tripping on the Sharks (Sam Dickinson): 2 minutes on the power play +2% NSH

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 Sharks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 14:30 Mason Marchment scored on a wrist shot from 12 feetShooting · 14% chance +14% SJS –
2 P1 5:08 Matthew Wood’s backhand shot from 7 feet was savedShooting · 13% chanceHigh sticking double minor on the Sharks (Zack Ostapchuk): 4 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +5% NSH –
3 P2 9:33 Ivar Stenberg missed the net with a snap shot from 8 feetShooting · 30% chance +5% NSH –
4 P3 15:32 Will Smith scored on a wrist shot from 29 feetShooting · 7% chance +15% SJS –
5 P3 10:55 Ryan O'Reilly scored on a backhand shot from 8 feetShooting · 15% chance +12% NSH –
6 P3 0:08 Matthew Wood’s tip from 7 feet was savedShooting · 13% chance +7% SJS –
7 P3 0:01 Steven Stamkos scored on a wrist shot from 34 feetShooting · 8% chance +46% NSH –
8 SO The game turned hereThe Sharks won the shootoutShootout · shootouts are close to coin flips +49% 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 53% · Predators 47%

Final margin
Sharks by 1
Luck in goals
0.8 for the Sharks
Luck-adjusted margin
Sharks by 0.2
Replay with same day's form
Sharks 53% · Predators 47% 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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