Since 2008, most NHL Goalies have used white pads. Why all the white, and why it could be a problem, in this edition of District 5. #hockey #nhl #goalies
What are the best pads you have ever seen? Worst? Weirdest? 🤔 *Side Note: I played goalie once for an end of year practice as a kid. First shot I ever faced was a roughly 70mph (muffin by NHL standards) slap shot to the dome. Couldn't believe how much that hurt lol... You goalies are insane, and I blame any future error in these videos on that shot! 😜
Can’t remember her name but there’s a famous woman goalie with bright blue and pink pads and gloves, always thought they were beautiful. As for the nhl, my fav have to be the dark green flurry pads from the minisoda team
My favorite were Dan Bouchard when he was in Quebec, white with blue borders kind of. I think he was the first to use white a year or two before Fuhr did in Edmonton. Was Happy when he got traded to Winnipeg for the 1985-86 season, got to keep the pads cause of the same color combo.
I had my helmet painted like Hayword's as a little kid, Belfour's helmet was classic too. Totally dig Fleury's throw back Stars setup though. But that's largely nostagia of living in MN and playing goalie during the Jon Casey days.
Meh, you get enough pucks off the mask you forget that it hurts. Jokes aside, the masks have improved greatly in my 25 years of playing goal, with my current mask, as long as I don't turn my head and take it off the ear, it's not a problem. Best pads: Roy's and/or Potvin's Worst pads: ALL THE STUPID WHITE ONES Weirdest pads: The ones with the mesh pattern on them.
my real takeaway from this was that, not only does pittsburgh need to give flower a 1 day contract to retire, they have to let him do it in the full yellow pads
@@Mise22I mean, a real storm? Not a thunderstorm, but a storm of fists raining down on your head. Blasting you in the face. Pummeling you in the stomach. Hitting you in the chest so hard you think your heart's gonna stop. You ever been in a storm like that, Wally?
The color of the pads only matters to the goaltender. If the goalie thinks his pads give him an edge, then he plays like it gives him an edge. Goaltending, especially at the pro-level, is more psychological than anything. If people around the goalie tell him that his gear makes him look big or small, faster or slower, etc and the goalie believes it, then it affects the way he plays. This also goes to goalies mimicking what they see is successful.
@@Gixsir So if the color of goalie gear has a significant effect on goaltending performance, how come it doesn't? The data doesn't support the hypothesis. That's science.
When the lower legs, they were discouraging all white goalie gear - they call them "ghosts" and restricted it. The white pads was also in response to the NHL shrinking goalie gear, which fans don't know about - they think players are better scorers They started restricting the size jerseys & masks And that's why we are now importing elephants that can do ballet from Eastern europe. No more Tim Thomas 5 ft 11 Tasmanian devils
@@samhatfield7732 Unless you think they are lying to him, if pens player feel it makes him look bigger, so will players from other teams, affecting their mental game. I could totally see white pads appear bigger.
As a goalie myself I think it comes down to confidence. Wearing any pad that makes you feel more confident will make you play significantly better in net. I personally have always liked white pads more than colors. They just feel clean to me. Wearing a black pad would make me feel dirty and lower my confidence in net. Goaltending is a mental game. If I was Fleury and heard my teammates say my pads made me look bigger I would have more confidence and that would likely help my game more than the pads themselves.
Been a goalie for 30 years and have had brown, black, multi-coloured, black and white, and white pads. Now i buy whatever is cheapest and mostly matches that’s pro-level protection, which is usually white and last years model. Brian’s used to send me stuff to try though, which was really nice.
Goalie pads are the only hockey equipment where the player can be as creative as they want. Love seeing a sick set of custom pads. Wish more goalies would stray away from boring designs
I would counter that, for the pros, flex points, stiffness, strapping, and other (internal) specs are more important than the graphic design. Bauer and CCM have digital printing options and some of the goalies take advantage of that, but Vaughn, True, and Brian's do graphics by stitching. I don't think True even offers custom graphics. The fact that graphics add some extra time to produce, if a goalie is in a hurry for gear (because of a trade or unexpected gear breakdown), stock graphics are faster to produce so they can get official KW sign-off/approval from the league sooner and have their gear a few days faster than for custom graphics.
@@HotBranch absolutely true that function is more important than the look. When I said custom pads, I didn’t mean the custom graphics (which are very cool), I was thinking more about the colors on the base design. Instead of all white or 95% white, get some color in there like Thatcher’s Blue and Green set, or Flower’s brown set that he used in Chicago
Totally agree. Goalies are extremely lucky to have this ability, yet everyone opts to wear plain white Bauer or true pads nowadays. Especially in the NHL and pro leagues, don’t ban white pads, but somehow enforce a change.
I started following the NHL 30 years ago and just about all of the top goalies had a distinct, unique look. As a Devils fan, I knew that not only would Martin Brodeur be decked out in Heaton Helites, they'd have graphics reflective of the team. Potvin when he was with the Leafs, CuJo with the Oilers and then the Leafs and Belfour with the Stars not only had some of the best pad designs, they were all color-coordinated! There's not much of that anymore and while a white set of pads and gear can look awfully sharp, they'll never look as cool when compared to what was worn when I was growing up.
I feel like this is underrated as well, since hockey wants to keep recruiting the young generation to get into it. The cool pads of the 90s-2000s would be a hit on every social media platform and allow for a potential larger audience base imo.
Was thinking this same thing while watching. I still remember Brodeur’s Heaton Helite III’s, and Potvin’s Heaton Pro 90s and then Koho Revolution set up, and Vanbieser’s Brown gear (made around the corner from me). I couldn’t tell you what any of my favourite goalies are wearing today. I just know it’s boring and white, haha.
As a lifelong goalie and a longtime referee, black pads do get you quicker whistles as it is harder to see -- it's also harder for players (and sometimes yourself) to find loose pucks that may not be completely covered. However, at the NHL level, pro players have mastered their shots so well that in many circumstances they're just shooting from muscle memory and what they can see of the red posts, in that sense, white would make the post easily contrast. We are seeing darker pads make a resurgence across the league. Right now, there are quite a few goalies that wear different sets with each uniform, so doing an A/B (same goalie, same team, different color pads) meta analysis might be possible to see if white pads give an advantage once we get enough samples. I do not think it will, you may look bigger, but you are not bigger.
The early Panthers goaltenders, Vanbiesbrouck, Fitzpatrick, Burke, Kidd and Luongo (in the 2000s), they all wore very beautiful combinations of colors. But the hat goes off to Felix Potvin. Every team he played with, he had a beautiful pad to show. His NY Islanders looks was simply the best.
Funny enough, the issue of every Tom, Dick and Harry having pads that are entirely white, mostly white, or white based is the reason I bought myself an entirely all black setup. My pads are completely black eflex 4s, and I had my white mask painted black to match them. Undoubtedly my favourite setup I've had **I just wanted to edit this to add that I fell in love with solid coloured pads when Brian Elliott wore his completely blue setup with St. Louis in 2016 and then his entirely red setup in Calgary as well
It’s like tape. Some people think black hides the puck better. Some think white tape soaks up more water It’s honestly just personal preference and hockey players being superstitious
As a beer league goalie, I wear custom pads that are Black and Orange. They look amazing and I would never go to white pads as I like having coloured pads. The downside of custom pads are you cant just go into a store and buy them. Most goalie shops I've been to in the GTA sell 90% white pads, with just a few coloured options and a few pure black options. I understand why, as it's easier to sell a single coloured/shaded pad but it is pretty sad. Honestly though I think the biggest issue are companies are selling only white or black goalie masks. There aren't any companies bringing out their own designs and most people can't afford to get them painted afterwards.
So true, unless you go custom (and pay way more) it's pretty much white or nothing. It's very annoying, I waited and waited and waited for some all black pads to come in stock at my local store, checking almost every week, eventually my old pads were just so worn out I had to just get a new set, mostly white, not a fan, but I didn't have the money for a custom set.
While you raise some excellent points, as a goalie with over 40 years between the pipes, there are some issues you might have overlooked. As to declining interest in becoming a goalie, I would say that the cost is the single biggest contributor to declining enrollment for the position. I have a friend whose 2 sons are goalies and during their growing teen years, he had at some points SIX full sets of gear in his house because his boys would grown into and out of their gear so quickly. The next contributing factor in the decline in kids wanting to become goalies is that the current mentality is you have to be 6'2" or more so big, lanky kids get a shot at moving up when a smaller, better goalie might be passed over by coaches who prioritize bigger kids in goal. You raised the point that team practices rarely, if ever, focus on what the goalies need, so to get better, the goalie's parents have to spend money on goalie-specific training, which is yet another obstacle to developing goalies. And let's not ignore the mental toll that the position can take on goalies of all ages, but when dealing with young kids, goals are generally blamed on the goalie so only the most mentally resilient kids will not give up. As to the color issue, you missed one point on black vs white tape: for shooters, black tape helps to conceal the puck a fraction of a second longer to make the read a little harder, whereas white tape allows the goalie to see the puck on the blade at all times. For pads, you touched on the point that the NHL is a league where success gets imitated, so the emergence of white (based on scientific advice) became the go-to, and if all- or mostly white gear helps the goalie's confidence, then it is unlikely that the one position where habits/superstition/routine is most dominant is likely to change significantly. Personally, I think masks are the bigger draw to the personality and fascination with goalies, but I developed a fascination and love of the position when it was white masks and brown gear. If dark pads look "slower" and white pads look "faster", then it demonstrates that hockey culture is still predominantly ruled by the "eye test" rather than by actual statistics (regular or advanced), which also explains why taller goalies get drafted rather than shorter goalies--the days of Richter, Vernon, Fuhr, Moog, Irbe, and Vanbiesbrouck (to name only a handful) are basically gone in the NHL. Your snippet from Rask saying how the sticks allow shooters to get so much velocity with minimal effort demonstrates how the NHL allows player gear innovations to advance unfettered, but any advantage a goalie has needs to be dialed back in some way. I get that high scoring games are exciting, but goalie battles can be just as exciting when you actually understand how difficult the game is to play. My final thought is on your A/B comparison of Aiden Hill's stats in white versus gold: the home (gold) games featured more shots per game than the road (white) games. What are the possible explanations for the ~10% increase in shot volume? Better defensive system on the road because of last change? Possibly. Opponents for the home games are higher volume shooting teams? Also possible. Color of the pads showing where the openings are? Also very possible. Pad color does not impact the athlete's ability to stop the puck, but using your own A/B comparison, it would seem that the gold pads encourage opponents to take some extra shots because they see a possible opening in Hill's net coverage. That, or the white pads cause the opposition shooters to reconsider shooting if they can't clearly distinguish between the net and pads. Given how accurate NHL shooters are, you can't discount that color (or lack thereof) can impact a player's decision to shoot or pass based on what they see for a few tenths (or hundredths) of a second.
The whole point is that (most) kids, (regardless of height, exact age, parents who played, or anything else) like coloured pads more.. Thus are more likely tempted to give them (or the position) a try. Which is needed. I mentioned that NHL players have conflicting opinions on stick tape. Some say white hides the release better, some say black. But it's not a fact either way.. As I said in the video, I realize many players have stated that they do indeed agree with the white pad theory. Whether they do it for mental or statistical reasons, is irrelevant to the question posed.. Goalies won't have a mental breakdown if they have to follow a rule. My only point with Adin Hill in white vs. gold, is that he won, in gold.. And Vegas was still getting great results this season, "letting" him use gold.. So clearly, whatever white offers, isn't THAT big a deal. Besides they all wear coloured pads for "special occasions" anyway. As such, the video argues sacrificing "not a big deal", for more people to like Hockey, and specifically playing goalie.
yeah price is a huge when it comes to parents letting their kids play in net. I think Masks and pads are a big draw when done really well. Potvin was the goalie that inspired me to want to play when I was young, but sadly my parents were worried about being blamed if things went wrong and the price being 2 to 3 times more than player gear. I started playing goal in the 2000s when gear became much cheaper since they manufactured them overseas. The down side was the quality sucked and they didn't really last as long. Gear today is much better than the early 2000s, but the price has gone up quite a bit. If you want brand new mid tier gear your spending at least $3000.
@@District5-YT I guess times have changed because it used to be the uniqueness of the position and what the goalie could do that attracted kids to the position. Next was the mask, but I guess kids' fascination with the position have changed. I would argue that clever designs that inject color on a white pad are just as interesting to look at (and, by your rationale, draw kids to the position) as solid-colored (or non-white) pads. MAF's yellow pads were nothing special outside of the bright yellow base while Driedger's pads are worth a deeper visual dive. I'm not saying one is right or wrong, but if color on pads is what draws kids to try the position, then it's not an NHL issue because the league has shown little more than contempt for the position over the years. Heck, if it IS color that draws them in and that gets smaller kids to the highest levels, then we can get rid of other unwritten rules about who should and shouldn't get a chance at moving up the ranks. But the fact remains that even if color fuels a kid's interest in trying the position, the reality of the cost is the next hurdle to clear and parents aren't always able or willing to make that sacrifice if they are of more modest means.
I remember when this transition happened I was in Minor midget actually looking to get new pads. I saw the premier ii in yellow and wanted them so badly because of Fleury. But my father didn't agree and actually forced me to get black ones, as they were at the time the more prolific colour way. Looking back I still wish I had gone with them over the black ones for the style points for sure.
@@nofuturestudios I ended up going with the xpulse instead, they were very nice pads but I always hated the catch gloves. I got a set of revokes after that and they really made me regret getting xpulse over premier
As an old-timer I too enjoy seeing some variety in pads. For me I play in black RBKs pads and blocker/trapper. Shooters aren't snipers and refs are half blind, so any possibility of a quick whistle, as I'm desperately scrambling for the puck, is a good thing 🙄Im surprised that with advancements in tech, that a pad company, making rec-hockey pads, hasn't adopted some hook-&-loop surface in key (non ice-contact areas) where customized colour pieces couldn't be slapped on. If you look at the disk on a circular sander, the stuck on sand paper is not coming off. Pads could be all white but somewhat customizable to match team uniforms
Well there are Pad Skinz which is effectively just sheets of coloured tape (made of faux leather pad material) for decorating your gear. That's basically what you're talking about. No need for velcro. I've never used it myself, but I've thought about it.
I remember back in the day it was a big thing that fleury finally came into his own once he ditched the bright yellow pads he started off with in Pittsburgh. I always loved the gear marc came into the league with but it made sense how it made the holes in your positioning more visible
Because they are ACTUALLY good players and know their SKILL is what people are coming for. It you are so simple minded to think "Oooh, pretty colors", then you are not only NOT an athlete, but also someone they don't even give a fuck to have a a fan.
This is the real answer. All white is the only color that works with basically any teams colors and uniforms. Even all black can look bad against navy blue or brown pants.
This is a good video with a surprising amount of different perspectives!!!! You including the conversation of how kids play is both wholesome and insightful. Your jokes are very funny, they fit the tone if your video well. I really enjoyed this, I’ll sub and look forwards to more content from you!
I refuse to own pads/gloves without some form of color/design that covers at least 50% of the surface. The most ironic part of the NHL goalies lack of personality in their gear now, is that their helmets have gone too far in the other direction, and are an unintelligible mess of overly detailed air brushing that no one can tell what the painting is of.
I Love Aidan Hill’s Pad set up so much because it just looks great. Like how the white gloves for away games, and dark gloves for home that Vegas wore for there home jerseys until 2021. It just looks awesome, and if you look good, you play good. Some of the best goalies of all time have had fantastic pad set ups, and I think it’s just a matter of mentality. When Fleury was in Vegas rocking the all gold pads he was unstoppable and it coasted him to a Veznia and deep play off runs. Fleury loves colored pads, and because of that fact when he wears them he rules. If you look at Andrei Vasilevskiy’s pads he’s almost always in all white with blue highlights, and they look pretty sick, and he seems to like his pads, he looks good, and there for he plays good. If you look down the list of the greatest goalies in the NHL right now, all of them have great pad set ups. Hellebuyck, Swayman, Demko, Igor, Logan Thompson, etc. It probably actually dose have something to do with color theory and how it works, but it could equally show that when a goalie likes the pads they wear, and the pads look good, they are gonna play better
I don't like white pads, but I don't think banning them is the answer. I just wish more goalies would use colors. Scott Wedgewood always had great pads and I was really sad to see him go mostly white this season
Patrick Roy absolutely was using his pads to bait shooters to go five hole. They were used in conjunction with his "post to post" technique and it changed the game
Hey man, been watching through your back catalogue and I'm glad the algorithm picked this one up, you're doing great work! The only thing I kinda dislike is how loud the background music can get compared to your voice.
There's push and pull to both black/coloured or white equipment. At the end of the day it all comes down to preference as to which a goalie uses. Just as an example, I have black pads for the early whistles, but white gloves to make them look bigger.
Yeah in the early 2000s, they started restricting white jerseys, all white goalie gear because it turned them into ghosts. Then they tried these painting patterns like Patrick Roy, turning their gear into optical illusions, and refs were complaining they couldn't see the puck and then they started requiring team colors. Which was very expensive with all the goalie gear changes as it was they were not allowed to play unless they had their team colors on their pads Gary Bettman wanted higher scoring goals, so he's been shrinking the gear. And fans are not aware of it. They actually thought hockey players suddenly became better scorers.
Player in one of the college and men's leagues by me got custom bright highlighter yellow pads and said it distracted players. He had a 97% save rate across 2000 shots, so it seemed to work. I can say that scorekeeping and watching the games, it was distracting. Another kid had red pads that matched the bars, and he said it made players nervous about whether they were shooting close to the bars or right at his pads. He was also a great goalie.
I grew up playing goalie when Fleury was wearing yellow pads. My first real set of gear was a mix of black, white and silver Reebok Premier Series 1. My pads and blocker were black/white/silver but my glove was white/black/silver. I thought I was so cool. But I got new gear in maybe 2007 or 2008 and at first, I wanted the black CCM Vector set, but once I realized everyone had them, I decided I needed an all-white set. I ended up getting all white Reebok Premier Series 2 glove and blocker and white/white/silver pads (I should've gone with the white/white/black, but that's a story for another day). I think all the NHL goalies at the time were going to white, so I just decided I had to have white. A few years later when Revoke came out, I really wanted an all-white set, but I quit hockey before I ever got new pads again. I'm always thinking what pads I would wear if I was playing now, and the last 6 or 7 years I've thought I'd probably go full color mode like Brian Elliott.
This brought back a memory of me going into player editor whatever it was and changing flury's pads back to yellow lololololol. I was going to say that there is more colour today than there was in 2008
I'm surprise no goalie tried something crazy like crease blue at the bottom, red stripe in the middle and white at the top to "camouflage" the pads in the crease
White pads sucks they take personalized look out of it. When Corey Crawford switched from white pads to black pads the Black pads looked so much nicer with the Blackhawks uniform. I'm glad Mrazek wears black at home with the Blackhawks and he has his better number at home in the black pads than his road white pads.
I hadn't noticed the league shift towards all white pads until it was pointed out to me, but now that it has been I realize how much I miss the fun colourful pads. Philipp Dietl's pads this year in the 2024 world juniors for team Germany were amazing and I want to see more outstanding designs like that in the NHL!
Those Checkers pad were lit back in the day... Those flames from the dragon back in his Calgary days was where i became a fan! I wish he was as effective as he was fun to watch!
Thank you for researching this, great video, been wondering about this for a while! Best pads: Keri Lehtonen's pads with the Thrashers, he had some good sets
So glad you covered this. Goalies, more than anyone else, seem to follow trends. They went from masks to birdcages to the hybrids they all wear now. They wore the all-brown pads for decades until Billy Smith started wearing colored ones and soon all-brown pads were gone. I feel like this is another trend however I could see how white or all-white could cause some difficulty spotting five hole openings. Btw, did Roy really handle the puck all the way to center ice in a real game?? That's just wild!
"You know who else wears white? Most of the goalies who have had awful seasons." Ha! I like the variety offered by colored pads but I can't fault goalies for looking for any advantage they can get (even if it's not real). They are under immense pressure to always be as close to perfect as possible. Nice video. I subscribed.
Freddy Andersen wore black pads with the Canes stadium series uniforms and occasionally at other times throughout the season. He already wears pretty small pads for his size but I couldn't help but think he did look at lot smaller, no matter how good they looked
honestly seeing any of the goalie equipment worn by starters when i was a kid in the early 2000s brings back so much nostalgia, its crazy. there were a lot of unique designs and damn did it make the game look even cooler. btw, in the description, you mean "edition" not "addition" ^^ nice vid tho!
Colored/designed pads are indeed much more enjoyable to see. I never considered that I kept noticing, but putting off the fact that I kept seeing stark white pads and thought how weird it was.
I played beer league for a year before covid (wish I could get back into it but Covid shut down my rink ☹) and I have solid black pads. I've always loved the way black pads look, and I don't care about whatever minimal disadvantage they might be, black pads rule 😊
210 subs is wild. There’s too much average hockey content on RU-vid right now for this to not get more exposure. Fascinating topic I’d never considered, goalies are such weirdos. Great thumbnail and editing, keep up the consistency and this will go some where.
The Canucks have also had white pad rules in recent years. Their goalie coach Ian Clark does not allow goalies to have anything but white pads. I guess he made some exception for Casey DeSmith's black skate setup though.
Trevor Kidd is single handedly responsible for 1) my getting into hockey over any other sport 2) becoming a lifelong goalie fan 3) playing goalie when I played briefly as a kid, and more. His pads were unlike anything else in the league, not only the flame pattern but the yellow, and then he outdid himself in Carolina. Shame he wasn't actually a better goalie. I have never understood why more goalies didn't use Brian's pads, I would have killed to wear totally custom pads. The plain solid colours are just so boring. What's better than a 5 bell save? A 5 bell save with cool looking gear. Gonna miss flower stealing the show with his moves and his gear. Bless Aden Hill for keeping the spirit alive. Maybe there will be a resurgence eventually.
The reason minor hockey is having trouble finding goalies is you have to be at least 6'-5" to make the NHL. Parents are already reluctant due to the cost but when you look at your family and the average height is less than 6' for most of its members being a goalie to go anywhere may not be a good idea.
Great vid and very interesting topic to discuss. FYI, Jakub Dobes is a rookie goaltender for MTL and this year was his first year playing in the AHL (Laval Rocket), and IIRC his pads was red. The first half of the season was disastrous for him; 5+ gaa and below .800 sv%. Since December, he switched his gears to almost white (with shades of red to match with the team colors), and his stats went up (last 6 games = 5-0-1, 2.51 gaa, 0.900 sv%). Does goalies play better with white gears than colored? I’m not an expert, but from what I’ve seen from Dobes’s progress, sure does help.
Side note: I was a huge Martin Brodeur fan. Saw a million of his games. While watching this video, I was racking my brain but couldn’t remember what his pads ever looked like.
What a well made video ! I absolutely love when goalies wear colours.. My favourite colours would be anything with a lot of RED. Carey price with his all red setup was beautiful. Fleury's yellow pads get a strong honourable mention as well as Huet's red and blue P2s and both of Potvin's black and blue KOHO sets. P.S I hated the checkered stuff. They look awful in my opinion :)
My first pads were those Itech Profile 4.8s, blue and black with the stars on. I grew up in the UK where there was minimal NHL coverage at the time but I remember seeing Byron Dafoe wear them with the Bruins. Aside from those crazy Brian's designs that were also really expensive, they were definitely the oddest pads as
It isn't just the pads, it's the masks. Goalies used to have distinct mask art that they kept with them regardless of what team they played for... thinking back not even that long ago, like Nabokov and Kiprusoff... The cool mask design was like their trademark... and it's what inspired me to become a goalie myself.
Mask designs used to be really out there. There are cool masks today, but I find the designs are usually pretty homogenous. You've got all the team colors represented, maybe some art or graphics, but they're small/on the backplate so you don't even really see them, and the designs on the front of the mask just don't pop as much as they used to. Cujo and Brodeur had some cool ones, I'm a flames fan so Kiprusoff had some cool ones. And if you didn't have a badass mask you wore a player bucket like Osgood or Hasek. There was just more character. I lived in Ottawa for awhile and I always liked how Lalime would have Marvin the Martian on his mask somewhere. Goalies still do that, put personalized graphics that mean something to them, but as I said, they're not usually prominent
I remember not liking when Fleury switched, I wear bright yellow ones myself. But I didn't think of it too much until the PWHL, and I love their goalie pads, they're super bright and team coloured and just look sick. So it kind of does make me hope that returns to the NHL at some point.
Some thoughts on black vs white vs coloured as someone who worn all three and not seen much difference. I do believe white pads do give a hesitation as to just how much space is available as many have said, a trade off is it's much easier to find pucks sitting next to a pad after a rebound or just bouncing around the crease. With mostly black gear I definitely saw quicker whistles, I've even had a ref blow the play dead well before I caught a puck in my glove because he lost sight of it on its way into the glove, so black definitely has an advantage there. For coloured, it was briefly touched on when talking about Fleury's yellow pads, they catch the eye, especially yellow as his optometrist said, hard to say how much that helps, but when a player has a split second to look at the net and their eyes are drawn to the yellow, or other colour, and you shoot where you're looking, it could draw their aim into your gear. At the end of the day I feel like it's a rather minor thing and any benefits may be largely mental, I feel like this will help my game so I'm more confident kinda thing. I went from largely black with some red, to green, and now white and I wouldn't say it's effected me at all, but I also don't put a lot of weight in my gear colour, I'm also not playing NHL so grain of salt I guess. Interesting video BTW, never realized the white pad phenomenon was this large.
As a lifelong soccer player, I was told while playing youth academy that keepers would wear fluorescent jerseys and have colourful glove patterns to draw the eye. The theory is that shooters aim at the last place they look at, and when glancing up for a quick second to shoot, their eyes lock onto the bright colours and thus shots would more likely be towards the keeper. It’s pretty dependent on the shot type tho since for a non kicking play such a header, seeing the keepers position out of your peripheral makes it easy to nod a ball to an open corner. Going back to hockey tho, looking at Saros and his success, I’ve always thought he made the choice of yellow pads and gloves deliberately. It would be interesting to dive deeper into the shot types vs coloured pads to see if there’s a correlation. Super interesting vid and take!
To me as a goalie, the idea of looking bigger makes sense but it feels like i get further out and harder to save shots, even then the change doesnt change anything so i would rather just have some character on the ice and when you feel better on the ice your gonna play better
Ive played goalie since I was 8 years old, the thing that got me into it was that I always thought the pads look so cool, my favorite were the vaughn iceberg ones which were also my first set that I ever got. Currently ive got a set of all black which i got because I was a huge crawford fan when he played haha
unrelated but i miss you ilya bryzgalov :D why you heff to be mad? awesome video, i've always wondered about the dominance of white pads, especially given the more colourful ones i saw growing up.
Congrats on making a hit hockey video! They're not very common, and i hope this starts a successful youtube tenure for you. Huge props for not having a "youtube voice", youre very eloquent just speaking a little too fast. Your clips, points, and takes on this video are fantastic.
Arguably more powerful than whether the white pads have any actual effect the placebo effect is incredibly powerful especially for a position like goalie where the mental aspects matter far more than the physical in a game to game basis.
I have had pads of all sorts of different colors and in the future if I get a new set I'm probably going to go with solid black weave. My current solid white weave which is okay but I think solid black weave looks amazing.
There was a story about this a while ago. It was around the penguins goal tender Marc Andre fleury. He had yellow pads at the time. for those of you unfamiliar with the eye and how it absorbs light, yellow is the easiest wave length to pick up on making the easiest to respond to. This is why amber shields or safety glasses are preferred in low light environments. So an optometrist actually reached out to fleury and explained players have an easier time seeing the gaps due to the yellow pads. This all due to the eye picking up on minute changes in the yellow pads movement etc. allowing sub consciously the brain to pick the best opening more effectively. This can be said for black pads. But yellow holds a special place as its not a shade. Yellow pads also allowed a puck to be seen easier making booth calls easier, and make it easier for refs to see the puck and not stop play when there's a scramble in front of the net. so much science involved in this its actually mind blowing. We take for granted what are eyes see and our brain interprets its pretty magical stuff.
The first NHL goalie I remember wearing exclusively white pads was Kari Takko for the Minnesota North Stars in the late 80s. Then came Tommy Soderstrom a few years later.
Petr Mrazek on the Blackhawks also has 2 sets: black pads for home games & mostly white for away. He doesn't have great stats but w/o him Hawks would be even worse. The Marty Turco green pads were pretty cool IIRC.
