https://www.thestar.com/sports/hocke...advantage.html
“In the NHL, you can’t pick it up well when the boards are white, the netting is pure white and the white goalie pads just help make the goalie less visible,” Piku said. “It creates an illusion in a split second (that) you see holes and there is no other reason than that.”
Karen Muncey, CEO of Dynamic Edge Sports Vision Training, a company that works with athletes to improve visual skills such as peripheral awareness and hand-eye coordination, said it’s logical that white pads would be an advantage over darker ones.
“It all goes back to that fact that if you’re presenting a dark outline, it gives (scorers) a much better place to not shoot,” she said. “If the pads are dark, they’re going to aim at the holes. So if you present them with a white pad or a little bit of a grey line that mimics the net behind them, with that fast rush up they have much less time to concentrate on the five-hole or other holes that are being presented.”