Colorful pads remain contentious topic for goalies | NHL.com (2024)

Function vs. fashion at heart of long-term belief that white is most effective choice

Carey Price generated a lot of buzz this week by wearing another set of red pads and gloves during practice with the Montreal Canadiens.

Price, who played Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks after three games with a lower-body injury, wore a red set with blue CCM lettering for six games in November before switching back to white pads.
Price's flirtation with colored pads has become another beacon of hope for goalies at all levels who long for a return to the days of more colorful equipment.
With NHL goalies increasingly opting for white pads because of the belief that appears bigger to the shooter, Price's willingness to buck the trend raised eyebrows in the debate among goalies about darker pads.
Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights wore yellow pads earlier in his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins and they quickly became his trademark until he changed course and reverted to a more traditional white set during the 2007-08 season.
Fleury was naturally curious what Price had to say about his red pads.
Price didn't seem too worried about dark pads making it easier for shooters to quickly identify where his equipment ended and where the net was open, one of the theories that has led to the increase in white equipment.
"I think everybody has a pretty good idea where the net is anyways," Price said during his November run in red. "Just changing it up a little. I wore them for pretty close to three weeks in practice and got a lot of great reviews."
It was music to the ears of Fleury, who added a gold set of his own this season.

"That's what I think too, and I love Carey's red pads," Fleury said. "But then it's still in my mind I should have more white (in my pads). That's why I like to bring the gold back once in a while. I always liked my yellow pads and it was a little throwback to that and I thought being a Golden Knight it would be fitting to have gold. I will still wear my white pads most of the time though."
Fleury ditched the yellow pads after an optometrist pointed out yellow was a color the human eye recognizes fastest, meaning shooters were able to distinguish his equipment from the background faster.
Fleury has used solid colors sparingly since, but others, including Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks and Mike Smith of the Calgary Flames, have had success since switching to black-based pads.
Some goaltending coaches at the professional level mandate white equipment.
Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy appeared to start the trend in 1995-96 with the Montreal Canadiens and then while winning the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. Roy added a white triangle to the inside of his leg pads in his stance, a design intended to create the illusion of more space around the five-hole, the opening between a goalie's legs when he is on his knees. Roy was baiting shooters to target an opening that was not as big as it appeared.
Anders Nilsson, traded to the Ottawa Senators from the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, is a convert when it comes to the effectiveness of white equipment.
Nilsson wore dark blue pads and gloves last season, his first with the Canucks, but switched to white-based equipment before playing for Sweden at the 2018 IIHF World Championship. When he watched video from the tournament, he was convinced to make the move permanently.

"I thought I looked skinnier, stylish but smaller, and I thought I could see more holes, and that's why I switched to a white base for the World Championship and I almost felt bigger somehow," said Nilsson, who won the tournament with Sweden and was named to the all-star team with a .954 save percentage. "Maybe it was just in the back of my head, but I felt a looked bigger."
Of course, what's in the mind of a goalie matters when it comes to performance and confidence.
Nilsson discovered this season the key may be where the dark colors are located. In designing the pattern for his equipment, he tried to replicate a pattern he used on a Brian's Beast model he wore as a teenager in Sweden. There was a major difference though: The outer edge on the current pair is white, not blue like it was on the original design. The change was function, not fashion.
"The first day I met our new goalie coach, he said, 'I only have one rule with gear, the perimeter has to be white,'" Nilsson said of Ian Clarke, the Canucks first-year goaltending coach. "In the middle, you can do whatever you want, but the outside has to be white.'"
As Clark explained, dark edges create a frame, a contrast with the background that makes it easier for shooters to see space with a quick glance. White is more ambiguous, which helps goalies look bigger.
"The illusion of white is you get bigger because the background (is white) and webbing on the net is white, the boards are white," Nilsson said. "With dark pads, you can see a little hole right away."