White tape makes your blade invisible

I'm sure the question of white tape vs. black tape (on the blade of your stick) has been debated ever since we began taping our sticks. [I would like to add a note that Wikipedia's article on hockey tape doesn't mention when the practice of stick-taping started, so I can't casually mention the year in this post. No doubt the hockey historians can name the first person who taped his blade, but I'm not motivated enough to dig for it just now.]

I used to use only black tape, out of habit more than anything. Some people argue that with black tape on your blade, the opponent can't see the puck against your blade. This seemed reasonable and I assumed it was the best choice. [As a side note, I think humans in general are frequently lured far, far away from optimal choices by the argument "well, it seemed reasonable at the time."]

There's one guy at shinny whose stickhandling skills are about 20 dB higher than everyone else's. Let's call him Mr. Redhead (although in this case I happen to know his real name). The puck appears to be attached to the blade of his stick by a string. He never seems to lose control, never seems to get poke-checked, always dekes successfully around anyone in his path, he lures in defenders by dangling the puck in front of them and then toe-drags it back to safety. I just love watching him stickhandle - in general I find it very pleasing to watch someone do something they are skilled at.

Anyway, back to my point: Mr. Redhead uses white tape on the blade of his stick.

How did I happen to notice? We were on opposing teams and I was trying to get the puck away from him and I lost sight of his blade. It just disappeared. By the time my eyes found it again he was well past me. In retrospect, that makes perfect sense. Tape your blade white and it blends in with the ice, especially if someone is looking straight down on it from above. That moment was enough for him to beat me.

In fact, ever since I noticed that, the black tape argument makes no sense to me, for two reasons:

1. The likelihood that you are looking at your opponent from precisely the right angle (across the ice) so that the puck is invisible against the tape is very small. Furthermore, I'm not sure what benefit is derived from not being able to see the puck for a split-second from a distance. It seems much more important to be able to fool someone in close, where they are a threat.
2. You are broadcasting where your stick is when you're trying to deke someone out. Or take the puck off them. Against the white ice, a black blade is impossible to miss. With one glance your opponent knows where your blade is, and maybe can guess what you're planning on doing.

So along with my usual Christmas request for consumable hockey supplies (sock tape, yellow laces to match my team uniform) I asked for white tape. The family graciously obliged. I retaped my blade and have played about half the season with white tape. Being a scientist, I'd love to have a way to measure whether it's helped me or not, but I have no reasonable way of making such a measurement. Especially because my skills have also improved over this half of the season.

But looking at it rationally, I think I'm a convert. It just makes way more sense. White tape makes your blade invisible.