Arturs Silovs adopted an equipment change that saved a goal in game 3
Arturs Silovs had one of the best games of his young NHL career on Sunday night, stopping 42 or 45 shots as the Canucks defeated the Oilers by a score of 4 to 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
During the game, Silovs made a goal line save that left many in awe. For some, they were in shock that Silovs was able to make that save, but for others, they were thinking that his glove went over the goal line and it should've been a goal for the Edmonton Oilers.
The officials reviewed the play and it was determined that there was no conclusive evidence that the puck crossed the goal line and the call on the ice stood - no goal.
After the game, the Sportsnet panel discussed the play and Elliotte Friedman made a very good point, saying that the colour of the webbing in Arturs Silovs' glove helped keep the call 'no goal'.
He added, "But, something interesting to look at. Let's go back a week, remember the one with Draisaitl and David Rittich. Because Rittich has the white webbing, you can see the puck is in the net and that is a goal.
Here, Perry calls for it, but look, these are the uniforms the Canucks are wearing tonight, that's from the regular season. With this uniform, he's [Silovs] got black webbing on his glove. His last start before the playoffs, was April 10th vs Arizona, with the Black Skate jerseys, he's got white webbing. So, if the Canucks had gone with this uniform in the playoffs, as some of their fans had wanted them to, he's got white webbing and it may have been easy to call it a goal. But, with this uniform combination, he has black webbing. Inconclusive, not 100 percent. So Canucks fans wanted the Black Skate jersey for the playoffs, thank goodness they didn't get their way or else they may have given up another goal there."
It's worth noting here that while, yes, some Canucks fans wanted the team to wear the Black Skate jerseys for the playoffs, it would have only been for home games and on the road, they would still wear their white uniforms. So, Elliotte's point where he says, if they wore the black jerseys it would've been a goal doesn't make a whole lot of sense when they never wear the Skate jerseys on the road.
Regardless, it is interesting to see how effective the black webbing can be for goaltenders and many are wondering if others will change their webbing to black for situations like this in the future.
| POLL | ||
Do you think Silovs will start Game 4 tomorrow? | ||
| Yes, he's been great, he has too | 1289 | 95.4 % |
| Depends on how DeSmith and Demko are feeling | 43 | 3.2 % |
| Unsure | 19 | 1.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
