Can a NHL player's stick tape give them an advantage? Science says one color just might (2024)

In 2009-10, as an NHL fledgling, Bruins forward Brad Marchand used white tape on his sticks. It was what he did in the AHL and in junior.

Zdeno Chara put an end to that.

The way the defenseman saw it, goalies did not track pucks off black-taped sticks as well as they did with white. This is a common if untested hypothesis.

Chara wrapped his sticks with black tape. He encouraged his younger teammate to do the same. Marchand, 21 at the time, was in no position to shoot down his captain.

Thirteen seasons later, Marchand has 372 career goals, 15th-most among active players. He uses black tape on his Warrior sticks. Marchand said he could never switch back to white.

Perhaps Chara was on to something.

One or the other

According to NHL Rule 10.1, players are free to use any tape color they want. Some of them exercise this option during warmups prior to tributes or cause-themed games. For example, rainbow (LGBTQ+), purple (Hockey Fights Cancer) or camouflage (military).

But when the games begin, NHL players use either black or white tape on the blades of their sticks. An informal poll of several equipment managers put the split between the two colors at about even.

Of the top 10 goal scorers in each of the past 10 seasons, 57 percent used white tape. This past season, four of the top 10 had white, including the Oilers’ Connor McDavid (No. 1 at 64 goals). The Bruins’ David Pastrnak (No. 2, 61 goals) used black. So did Leon Draisaitl (No. 4, 52 goals), McDavid’s teammate.

There is no consensus explanation as to why players prefer one over the other. In most cases, it is the color they have used since they first graduated from pushing milk cartons.

It could be, though, that players who use black have an advantage.

Contrast matters

Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark faced 1,457 shots in 2022-23. On each occasion, this year’s Vezina Trophy favorite had to juggle multiple factors: a shooter’s location, his release, traffic in front, whether the attacker was a righty or lefty, the presence of other threats.

As such, the color of the shooter’s tape did not register with Ullmark. In most cases, the shooting situation developed so rapidly that he did not consciously perceive whether the puck was being released off black or white.

“Everything’s so fast,” the Bruins goalie said.

So is the eye.

According to Dr. Eric Gaier, neuro-ophthalmologist and surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, it takes about 100 milliseconds for information to travel from the eye to the visual area of the brain. In about one-tenth of a second, in other words, a goalie can spot a puck and have his brain process what he sees. That is plenty of time to see a defenseman loading up for a point shot and activate the movement required to make the save.

In theory, the goalie could have a bigger advantage if the shooter uses white tape instead of black.

“With white tape, there are going to be more visual cues available to the goalkeeper,” Gaier said. “White tape provides greater contrast between the puck and the background. As the puck comes off the stick, with greater salience of visual cues, it’s going to be easier to predict where the puck is going to go. Therefore, we might expect it to be easier to save shots coming off white tape as opposed to black.”

The eye, Gaier explained, is designed to relay edges. For example, think of a black door framed against a white wall. The eye will identify the frame of the door.

The same concept, then, could apply to the ice. The eye may not necessarily distinguish a black puck on black tape. Conversely, the eye will more easily identify the outline of the puck on white tape.

“Greater contrast disparities between a visual target and its background make it easier to see. Especially for fast-moving objects,” Gaier said. “The circuitry of the retina is designed to pick up edges. If a player creates a greater contrast by using white tape as opposed to black, they may be doing the goalkeeper a service.”

Gaier proposed the following scenario: a 100-mph one-timer taken from the point. It would take the puck about four-tenths of a second to arrive on net from the stick. If it took the goalie 100 milliseconds to see the puck and for that information to travel to his brain, he would have 300 milliseconds to read the situation and raise his hand, for example, in anticipation of a glove save.

“Considering the distance to the goal, the speed of the average slap shot and the time for the brain to process visual information and react — which is faster for elite goalkeepers than the average human — the shooter’s choice of white versus black tape could very well be the difference between a goal and a save,” Gaier said.

Theory versus reality

This hypothesis is not to say that McDavid could score 100 goals if he switched to black tape. Nor is it proof that Pastrnak would be a fourth-liner if he went to white.

The sport’s best scorers combine a blend of power, speed, accuracy, deception and determination. Isolating a single trait, then, is a fool’s errand. Then there’s luck: the puck that clangs off three bodies before settling into the net.

Good luck to the goalies tasked to blunt this degree of chaos.

“Because it’s happening so fast, the goalkeepers are probably using many other tools or cues they’ve learned to apply, such as the movement of the stick even before it hits the puck,” Gaier said. “They’re probably using that and lots of other visual cues to make a decision about where the puck is headed that they probably couldn’t even explain to you.”

But maybe McDavid could have 66 goals, say, instead of 64, were he to use black. Or maybe the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who finished 14th in 2022-23 with 40 goals, could have cracked the top 10 by ditching white.

You might think, then, that it would behoove equipment managers to stock their dressing rooms with only rolls of black tape. Such a tactic may not gain traction.

NHL players, like those in other sports, thrive on feel. They like things just so, from eating the same pregame meal to putting on the same skate first. A player who has spent a lifetime wrapping sticks with white tape may dismiss reaching for black, especially if the suggestion came from an equipment manager rather than a future Hall of Famer like Chara.

“I could never switch back,” Marchand said. “I’ve tried it since. It was really awkward. I won’t be changing anytime soon.”

Charlie Coyle, Marchand’s teammate, once thought the same thing. Coyle was loyal to black.

But then from late January to early March, the Bruins center went 12 straight games without scoring a goal. Sometime near the end of this streak, he switched to white tape. On March 4, he scored against the Rangers. He finished the season with white.

“Had to change things up,” Coyle said. “It just feels lighter now.”

Coyle must have sensed a sideways response to this declaration. He had an answer ready even before being asked a question.

“I know,” Coyle said with a smile, “that it’s all in my head.”

Taste tape among top scorers

(Illustration Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photos: Peter Joneleit / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images and Ethan Miller / Getty Images)