Insiders say Draisaitl goal will change the future of goalie equipment

With the huge performance of the Draisaitl in the series winning game 5, the Oilers' stars are playing fantastic when it matters most. Draisaitl scored two goals in this game, but his first of the night may have ramifications for the entire NHL.

This is the goal that Draisaitl scored, where the puck just barely goes over the goal line due to Rittich putting his glove back in the net. This was a back breaking goal for the Kings to let up, as it loses them the lead and shows them that the Oilers will never be silenced. They talk more about the goal on the Sportsnet panel after the game, where they bring up some great points about how this goal could affect goalies' decisions on how they choose their glove colours.




In their discussion on the topic, the Sportsnet panel goes on to say that the first goal scored by Draisaitl could have been a lot more problematic to go over if not for one specific camera angle. This camera angle shows the side of the net, where you can see the puck cross the goal line due to the contrast of the black puck on Rittich's white glove. This is the issue with the play, as if Rittich's glove were fully blacked out with black webbing, the puck would've been so much harder to see across the goal line.

Elliotte Friedman implies that this may now be something that will always be on a goalie's mind going forward. If playing with a blacked out glove may have the chance to even reduce one goal in a game, there's almost no reason to use anything else but black. It'll be interesting to see whether goalies will consciously consider this going forward, although calls like Draisaitl's goal don't happen often at all, so the benefit may be negligible. It may however become the new norm, all thanks to Draisaitl's insanely strong one timers.