Andrei Vasilevskiy trying new equipment to give the Lightning an unfair advantage

Each and every year, NHL goaltenders look to exploit any possible rule they can with their equipment in hopes of gaining a bit of an advantage for their team on the ice. At one point, it was oversized equipment. At another point, it was monstrous knobs at the end of their goalie sticks. Now, Andrei Vasilevskiy is taking things to the next level in hopes of giving the Lightning an advantage in play reveiws.

Vasilevskiy has changed the colour of his blade-holders on his skates from white to black, in hopes of better hiding the puck under his skate, complicating matters for video review teams in the war room who are using video feeds to determine whether or not the puck has crossed the goal line.

There is no official rule against changing the colour of the skate blade holders on a goalie's skate boot, so in that sense, Vasilevskiy isn't really breaking any rules. You'd have a hard time convincing me, though, that the move wasn't made with the intent of cheating without breaking the official rules.

Loopholes and exploits are always going to be a part of the game, unfortunately. Anytime you have a book of rules, you're going to have someone reading through it, letter by letter, in hopes of finding a way to exploit them to gain an advantage. It's unfortunate, but i's just the reality.

Personally, I hope this backfires on Vasilevskiy. If a puck is close to going in and an official catches a glimpse of a black skate blade crossing the goal line and confuses it for the puck, it may lead to a goal call that can't be overturned because the evidence is inconclusive if the puck ends up close to the goal line somewhere under his equipment or is fished out of the net after a whistle.

This will clearly create questions, but do you think the NHL should mandate blade holder colors?

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