Hockey puck

Lore & Background

The origin of the word puck is vague; the Oxford English Dictionary suggests it is related to the verb to puck, a cognate of poke, used in shinty and hurling for striking or pushing the ball, from Scottish Gaelic puc or Irish poc meaning 'to poke, punch or deliver a blow'. It is possible that settlers of Nova Scotia, many of whom were Scottish and Irish who played shinty and hurling, introduced the word to Canada. The first known printed reference was in Montreal in 1876, just a year after the first indoor game was played there. A hockey puck is also referred to colloquially as a 'biscuit'; to put the 'biscuit in the basket' is to score a goal.

By the 1870s, flat pucks were made of wood as well as rubber. Records from the first indoor ice hockey game in 1875 used a wooden puck, though cuts from large corks have also been used. At first, pucks were made in the shape of a square. Rubber pucks were first made by slicing a rubber ball, then trimming the disk square. The original puck used in the first organized games in Kingston on March 10, 1886, was made from a cut-down lacrosse ball; it looks like a lump of coal, is made from soft rubber, and bounces far more than a modern hockey puck. The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal is credited with making and using the first round pucks in the 1880s.

NHL regulation pucks were not required for professional play until the 1990–91 season, but were standardized for consistent play and ease of manufacture half a century earlier by Art Ross in 1940. Major manufacturers of pucks exist in Canada, Russia, the Czech Republic, the People's Republic of China, and Slovakia.

Reader's Guide

The hockey puck is central to the identity and play of ice hockey. Its standardized dimensions—1 inch thick, 3 inches in diameter, and weighing between 5.5 and 6 ounces—ensure consistent performance across professional and amateur levels. Pucks are frozen before games to reduce bouncing during play. Most goals are scored by airborne pucks, sometimes tumbling through the air, and radar guns commonly measure shot speed; the current world record is held by Denis Kulyash at 110.3 mph. Fast-flying pucks are potentially dangerous to players and spectators, leading to the evolution of protective gear such as the goaltender mask. A notable incident occurred on March 18, 2002, when a 13-year-old girl died after being struck by a puck deflected into the crowd at an NHL game, the only known incident of this type in league history; partly as a result, mesh nets were added above the glass panels on rinks. Variations exist for training and other surfaces: a blue 4 oz puck for younger players, heavier 10 oz training pucks for strength development, steel pucks weighing 2 lb for wrist strength (not used for shooting), white pucks for goaltender practice, and hollow fluorescent orange pucks for road or floor hockey. Two short-lived television innovations—the Firepuck in the early 1990s and the FoxTrax 'smart puck' in 1996—aimed to improve puck visibility but were discontinued due to structural issues, player objections, or loss of broadcast rights.

Did You Know?

• The first known printed reference to 'puck' was in the Montreal Gazette on February 7, 1876.
• The FoxTrax 'smart puck' debuted at the NHL All-Star game on January 20, 1996, and was shelved when Fox Sports lost NHL broadcast rights three years later.