http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080408/sports/ihockey_nhl_penguins_senators_goalie_eyesight
OTTAWA EYE DOCTOR HELPS ENEMY PENGUINS GOALIE
OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian optometrist has unwittingly given the Pittsburgh Penguins an advantage going into their opening National Hockey League playoff game Wednesday against her darling Ottawa Senators.
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Optometrist Janet Leduc wrote in a letter to the Penguins' coaching staff some months ago that their goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, could improve his game if he ditched his trademark yellow pads.
Accompanying her letter was a graph describing how quickly human eyes identify various colors, she told AFP.
Leduc explained that the human eye spots yellow more easily than any other color and that is why ambulances, fire hydrants and school buses are often painted yellow.
"This means that of everything on the ice, the most visible object is Marc-Andre's goalie pads," she wrote.
"When the play is so fast, this is an advantage to your opponents," she said. "They can easily pick out your goalie, net and where to aim the puck in a split second."
"At your level of competition, a small thing like this can make the difference between a successful or unsuccessful shot on net."
Leduc suggested that Fleury switch to white goalie leg pads to blend in with his background of ice, goal netting and boards.
Recently, he apparently took that advice and with a new white blocker, trapper and pads improved his statistics to a personal record 0.921 save percentage and 2.33 goals against average.
Now the Penguins will open the Stanley Cup playoffs against Leduc's favorite team.
With Ottawa's captain Daniel Alfredson sidelined by injury, the Penguins are heavily favored to defeat the Senators in the NHL Eastern Conference best-of-seven first-round series.
"Isn't that awful?" Leduc said. "But the Senators were way ahead of Pittsburgh in December when I wrote the letter."
Leduc said she is "horrified" by the thought that the Senators could be defeated by the Penguins in the first round of the NHL playoffs because of her meddling, but said she was only looking to help out a young goalie from Quebec.
"I'm a huge Senators fan, but Fleury is a good kid and I just thought he needed someone to tip him off about the yellow pads," she said.
"My advice hasn't made him a better goalie," she added. "But it has made it a bit harder for his opponents to score on him."
