Hockey puck

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A standard ice hockey puck Ice hockey puck - 2.jpg
A standard ice hockey puck

A hockey puck is either an open or closed disk used in a variety of sports and games. There are designs made for use on an ice surface, such as in ice hockey, and others for the different variants of floor hockey which includes the wheeled skate variant of inline hockey (a.k.a. roller hockey). They are all designed to serve the same function a ball does in ball games.

Contents

A closed disk hockey puck having the shape of a short cylinder made of vulcanized rubber is used in the sport of ice hockey. Hockey pucks are designed for use on either an ice surface, dry floor, or underwater, though open disk designs have only been used on floors. [1]

Open disk hockey pucks have a hole, forming the shape of a toroid, for use in a particular style of floor hockey. They should not be confused with ringette rings, which are toruses, for use in the sport of ringette. This article deals chiefly with the sport and game pucks which are closed disks.

Etymology

The origin of the word puck is vague. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests the name is related to the verb to puck (a cognate of poke) used in the games of shinty and hurling for striking or pushing the ball, from the Scottish Gaelic puc or the Irish poc, meaning "to poke, punch or deliver a blow": [2] [3]

It is possible that settlers of Nova Scotia, many of whom were Scottish and Irish who played shinty and hurling, may have introduced the word to Canada. This is supported by the prevalent use in Canada of the word "shinny" for an informal or "pick-up" game of hockey, which is also derived from the Scottish game of shinty. The first known printed reference was in Montreal, in 1876 (Montreal Gazette of February 7, 1876), just a year after the first indoor game was played there. [4]

A hockey puck is also referred to colloquially as a "biscuit". To put the "biscuit in the basket" (colloquial for the goal) is to score a goal. [5]

In ice hockey

The puck (very center) is shot towards the goal by Bryan Rust (far right) Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Bryan Rust (33744033514).jpg
The puck (very center) is shot towards the goal by Bryan Rust (far right)

Ice hockey requires a hard disk of vulcanized rubber. A standard ice hockey puck is black, 1 inch (25 mm) thick, 3 inches (76 mm) in diameter, and weighs between 5.5 and 6 ounces (156 and 170 g); [6] some pucks are heavier or lighter than standard (see below). Pucks are often marked with silkscreened team or league logos on one or both faces. [6] Pucks are frozen before the game to reduce bouncing during play. [6]

History

The first hockey pucks

The first hockey pucks [7] were made from frozen cow dung and leather liver pads. These early pucks had a lifespan of about one game before they were too soft or too hard for playability, so they were replaced with wooden ones.

Ball games on ice

The sport of bandy, prior to its first official organization in Britain, had its informal variants spread to North America where they and game concepts from lacrosse, shinty and hurling served as precursors in some format to ice hockey. These informal games utilized various types of balls while being played on ice until the latter half of 19th century Canada, after which the game of ice hockey and the ice hockey puck began to take their official shape and form.

Shape and material

By the 1870s, flat pucks were made of wood as well as rubber. Records from the first indoor ice hockey game (1875) used a wooden puck, to prevent it from leaving the area of play [8] though new evidence has shown that cuts from large corks have also been used.[ citation needed ]

At first, pucks (of either material) 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 first in the first organized games in Kingston on March 10, 1886 (on display at the Original Hockey Hall of Fame), 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. [9]

The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal is credited with making and using the first round pucks, in the 1880s. [10]

Variations

There are several variations on the standard black, 6-ounce (170 g) hockey puck. One of the most common is a blue, 4-ounce (110 g) puck that is used for training younger players who are not yet able to use a standard puck. Heavier 10-ounce (280 g) training pucks, typically reddish pink or reddish orange in colour, are also available for players looking to develop the strength of their shots or improve their stick handling skills. Players looking to increase wrist strength often practice with steel pucks that weigh 2 pounds (910 g); these pucks are not used for shooting, as they could seriously harm other players. White pucks are used for technical handling and goaltender practice. These are regulation size and weight, but made from white rubber. The colour blend in with the ice and rink and requires higher focus on the puck, making handling of the black puck at later stage easier. [11] A hollow, light-weight fluorescent orange puck is available for road or floor hockey. Other variants, some with plastic ball-bearings or glides, are available for use for road or roller hockey.[ citation needed ]

Two major developments have been devised to create better puck visibility on television broadcasts, but both were short-lived:

Firepuck

The use of a "Firepuck" in the early 1990s was the first attempt to improve the visibility of hockey pucks as seen on television. This invention incorporated coloured retro reflective materials of either embedded lens elements or prismatic reflectors laminated into recesses on the flat surfaces and the vertical edge of a standard hockey puck. Yellow was the preferred reflected colour. A spotlight was required to be positioned on the TV camera and focused at the centre of the viewing area.

A short demonstration tape of the Minnesota North Stars skating with the Firepuck was shown during the period break at the 1993 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal. The International Hockey League (IHL) pursued testing the Firepuck with its inventor, Donald Klassen. The next television viewing was the IHL All-Star Game in Fort Wayne, Indiana, January 1994, where the Firepuck was used for the entire game. The IHL tested the Firepuck in two more games, and finally the East Coast Hockey League used it January 17, 1997, for their all-star game.

The use of the Firepuck was discontinued because of these reasons:

  • The slight structural change increased the tendency for the puck to bounce on the ice. This made it more difficult for the goaltender and resulted in increased scoring.
  • The skaters objected to the use of camera spotlights which reflected off the ice.
  • The television viewing contrast of the Firepuck was not noticeably enhanced when the camera view was of the entire rink, this being the most common camera shot.

The Firepuck name was branded during the 1990s but has since been discontinued.

Smart puck

The FoxTrax "smart puck" was developed by the Fox television network when it held National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasting rights for the United States. The puck had integrated electronics to track its position on screen; a blue streak traced the path of the puck across the ice. The streak would turn red if the puck was shot especially hard. This was an experiment in broadcasting intended to help viewers unfamiliar with hockey to better follow the game by making the puck more visible. It was ill-received by many traditional hockey fans, but appreciated by many of the more casual viewers.[ citation needed ] The system debuted with much publicity in the NHL All-Star game at the Boston Fleet Center on January 20, 1996, but the system was shelved when Fox Sports lost the NHL broadcast rights three years later.[ citation needed ]

In game play

During a game, pucks can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) or more when struck. The current world record is held by Denis Kulyash of KHL's Avangard Omsk, who slapped a puck at the 2011 KHL All-Star Game skills competition in St. Petersburg, Russia on 5 February 2011 with a speed of 110.3 miles per hour (177.5 km/h). [12] Zdeno Chára, whose slapshot clocked 108.8 miles per hour (175.1 km/h) in the 2013 NHL All-Star Game SuperSkills competition, broke his own earlier record. [13]

Fast-flying pucks are potentially dangerous to players and spectators. Puck-related injuries at hockey games are not uncommon. This led to the evolution of various types of protective gear for players, most notably the goaltender mask. The most notable incident involving a spectator took place on March 18, 2002, when a 13-year-old girl, Brittanie Cecil, died two days after being struck on the head by a hockey puck deflected into the crowd at an NHL game between the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets in Columbus. This is the only known incident of this type to have occurred in the history of the league. Partly as a result of this event, the glass or plexiglass panels that sit atop the boards of hockey rinks to protect spectators have been supplemented with mesh nets that extend above the upper edge of the glass.

Manufacture

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. [6] Major manufacturers of pucks exist in Canada, Russia, the Czech Republic, the People's Republic of China, [6] [ better source needed ] and Slovakia. [14]

The black rubber of the puck is made up of a mix of natural rubber, antioxidants, bonding materials and other chemicals to achieve a balance of hardness and resilience. [15] This mixture is then turned in a machine with metal rollers, where workers add extra natural rubber, and ensure that the mixing is even. Samples are then put into a machine that analyses if the rubber will harden at the right temperature. An automated apparatus, called a pultrusion machine, [6] extrudes the rubber into long circular logs that are 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter and then cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick pieces while still soft. These pre-forms are then manually put into moulds that are the exact size of a finished puck. [15] There are up to 200 mould cavities per moulding palette, capable of producing up to 5,000 pucks per week. [6] The moulds are then compressed. This compression may be done cold [6] or with the moulds heated to 300 °F (149 °C) for 18 minutes, [15] depending on the proprietary methods of the manufacturer. They come out hard and then are allowed to sit for 24 hours. Each puck is manually cleaned with a trimmer machine to remove excess rubber. The moulding process adds a diamond cross-hatch texture around the edge of the puck for more friction between the stick and puck for better control and puck handling. [15]

The practice pucks are made by a similar but faster process that uses larger pre-forms, 4–5 in (10–13 cm) thick, puts them into moulds automatically, and applies more pressure and heat over a shorter period of time to compress the puck into the standard size. This allows approximately twice as many pucks to be manufactured in the same time period as the more exacting production of NHL regulation pucks. People sometimes freeze pucks to prevent them from sticking to the ice. [6]

The list of former or present-day major producers includes

In roller hockey

Roller hockey, puck a.k.a. inline-hockey puck Inline-Hockey Puck.jpg
Roller hockey, puck a.k.a. inline-hockey puck

Roller hockey pucks, a.k.a. in-line hockey pucks, are similar to ice-hockey pucks but are made from plastic and thus lighter. They have small ribs protruding from their tops and bottoms which limit contact with the surface, allowing better sliding motion and less friction. These pucks are mostly commonly red in color but can be found in almost any color, though light, visible colours such as red, orange, yellow, pink, and green, are typical. Roller hockey pucks were created so inline hockey and street hockey players could play with a puck instead of a ball on surfaces such as hardwood, concrete, and asphalt.

In underwater hockey

Underwater Hockey puck pushed by stick Glove-stick-puck.jpg
Underwater Hockey puck pushed by stick

Originally known as "squid" in the United Kingdom and now more commonly known as "Octopush", underwater hockey uses a type of puck that while similar in appearance to an ice hockey puck, differs in that it has a lead core weighing approximately 3 pounds (1.4 kg) within a teflon, plastic or rubber coating. This makes the puck dense enough to sink in a swimming pool, though it can be lofted during passes, while affording some protection to the pool tiles.

A smaller and lighter version of the standard puck exists for junior competition and is approximately 1  lb 12  oz (0.80–0.85 kg) and of similar construction to the standard puck.

While there are numerous regional variations in colour, construction and materials all must conform to international regulations stipulating overall dimensions and weight. The regulations state that pucks should be a bright distinctive colour, for example high-visibility pink or orange, and that for World Championships these are the only acceptable colours.

In spongee

Spongee [18] a.k.a. "sponge hockey", is an organized recreational cult game that emerged in Canada around the 1950s and is played in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. It gets its name from the puck that is used: instead of the hard vulcanized rubber puck used in regular ice hockey, a softer sponge puck is used. [19] At one point, some locals referred to it as "tweeter" based on the sound the original pucks made. The game is a variant of ice hockey and was influenced by Canadian road-hockey and ice-hockey players playing shinny on outdoor rinks in running shoes and winter boots. The game is played in winter strictly on outdoor rinks, does not use ice skates, and has codes involving less contact. Broomball shoes are sometimes used.

The spongee puck [19] [20] originated when someone took a toy red-white-and-blue handball and cut out the center, leaving a rude approximation of a standard hockey puck. Eventually manufactured types of sponge pucks came into use, some of which were developed in Slovakia and had a spring core. Spongee pucks are softer than ice hockey pucks and have more bounce.

In other sports and games

Table shuffleboard pucks IndoorShuffleboardScore.jpg
Table shuffleboard pucks

The term "puck" is sometimes also applied to similar (though often smaller) gaming discs in other sports and games, including novuss, shuffleboard, table shuffleboard, box hockey, floor hockey, and air hockey.

Alternative uses

Ice hockey pucks of regulation 3-inch (7.6 cm) diameter and 1-inch (2.5 cm) thickness may be used as mechanical vibration dampening isolators in places such as feet for light industrial air compressors, and air conditioning units because they are of regulation materials and therefore consistent manufacture, size, and shape, and are constructed of a repeatable and consistent vulcanized rubber material.

Since the material is rubber, it may be drilled out or milled easily to a fixed depth as rubber feet or used as rubber spacer or gasket material.

A very common use of a slotted hockey puck is as an adaptor between the metal foot of a trolley jack and the sill (rocker panel) of an automobile. The sill has a spot-welded lip which fits into the slot of the puck and would otherwise be bent or marked by the metal foot.

In November 2018, faculty of Oakland University in Michigan received hockey pucks and training to throw them as a possible last-ditch defense against active shooters. The American Association of University Professors distributed pucks to its 800 members, and is working with student groups to distribute an additional 1,700 pucks to students. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hockey</span> Sports played with hockey sticks

Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers of players, apparel, and playing surface, they share broad characteristics of two opposing teams using a stick to propel a ball or disk into a goal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice hockey</span> Team winter sport

Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding team sports. It is distinct from field hockey, in which players move a ball around a non-frozen pitch using field hockey sticks.

Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. It can be played with traditional roller skates or with inline skates and use either a ball or puck. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 countries worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defense (sports)</span> Preventing an opponent from scoring

In many team sports, defense or defence is the action of preventing an opponent from scoring. The term may also refer to the tactics involved in defense, or a sub-team whose primary responsibility is defense. Similarly, a defense player or defender is a player who is generally charged with preventing the other team's forwards from being able to bear down directly on their own team's goalkeeper or goaltender. Such positions exist in association football, ice hockey, water polo and many other sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice hockey rink</span> Rink for the purpose of playing ice hockey

An ice hockey rink is an ice rink that is specifically designed for ice hockey, a competitive team sport. Alternatively it is used for other sports such as broomball, ringette, rinkball, and rink bandy. It is a rectangle with rounded corners and surrounded by walls approximately 1.22 metres (48 in) high called the boards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Face-off</span> Method used to begin play in ice hockey and some other sports

A face-off is the method used to begin and restart play after goals in some sports using sticks, primarily ice hockey, bandy, floorball, broomball, rinkball, and lacrosse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goaltender mask</span> Sports mask protecting the head and face

A goaltender mask, commonly referred to as a goalie mask, is a mask worn by goaltenders in a variety of sports to protect the head and face from injury from the ball or puck, as they constantly face incoming shots on goal. Some sports requiring their use include ice hockey, lacrosse, inline hockey, field hockey, rink hockey, ringette, bandy, rinkball, broomball, and floorball. This article deals chiefly with the goal masks used in ice hockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinny</span> Informal type of hockey played on ice

Shinny is an informal type of hockey played on ice. It is also used as another term for street hockey. There are no formal rules or specific positions, and often, there are no goaltenders. The goal areas at each end may be marked by nets, or simply by objects, such as stones or blocks of snow. Body checking and lifting or "roofing/reefing/raising the puck" are often forbidden because the players are not wearing protective equipment. Shinny is a game that all levels of hockey enthusiasts can play because it requires no rink, requires no skills except ability to hold a stick and at the very least to try to touch the puck or ball when it goes by. Shinny may be completely non-competitive and recreational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broomball</span> Winter team sport

Broomball is a both a recreational and organized competitive winter team sport played on ice or snow and is played either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. It is a ball sport and is most popularly played in Canada and the United States.

The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) was an amateur men's ice hockey league founded on 8 December 1886, in existence until 1898. It was the second ice hockey league organized in Canada, after one in Kingston, Ontario started in 1883. It was organized to provide a longer season to determine the Canadian champion. Prior to its founding, the Canadian championship was determined in a tournament in Montreal. It is the first championship ice hockey league.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street hockey</span> Variant of other hockey sports

Street hockey is a collection of team sport variants played outdoors either on foot or with wheeled skates, using either a ball or puck designed for play on flat, dry surfaces. The object of every game is to score more goals than the opposing team by shooting the ball or puck into the opposing team's net. All games are derivatives of either the sport of ice hockey, floor hockey, bandy, and/or field hockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice rink</span> Place for ice skating and sports

An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The growth and increasing popularity of ice skating during the 1800s marked a rise in the deliberate construction of ice rinks in numerous areas of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floor hockey</span> Group of sports

Floor hockey is a broad term for several indoor floor game codes which involve two teams using a stick and type of ball or disk. Disks are either open or closed but both designs are usually referred to as "pucks". These games are played either on foot or with wheeled skates. Variants typically reflect the style of ice hockey, field hockey, bandy or some other combination of sport. Games are commonly known by various names including cosom hockey, ball hockey, floorball, or simply floor hockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roller in-line hockey</span> Sport discipline

Roller in-line hockey, American roller hockey or inline hockey, is a variant of hockey played on a hard, smooth surface, with players using inline skates to move and ice hockey sticks to shoot a hard, plastic puck into their opponent's goal to score points. The sport is a very fast-paced and free-flowing game and is considered a contact sport, but body checking is prohibited. There are five players including the goalkeeper from each team on the rink at a time, while teams normally consist of 16 players. There are professional leagues, one of which is the National Roller Hockey League (NRHL). While it is not a contact sport, there are exceptions, i.e. the NRHL involves fighting.

Spongee or sponge hockey is a winter sport and a variant of ice hockey that is played on outdoor ice rinks without ice hockey skates. It is played almost exclusively in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and has been played by thousands of players in dozens of leagues. The sport takes its name from the type of puck used, which is soft sponge puck as opposed to the hard vulcanized rubber puck used in traditional ice hockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ringette</span> Team sport played on ice

Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. While the sport was originally created exclusively for female competitors, it has expanded to now include participants of all gender identities. Although ringette looks ice hockey-like and is played on ice hockey rinks, the sport has its own lines and markings, and its offensive and defensive play bear a closer resemblance to lacrosse or basketball.

Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain, Ireland, and elsewhere, primarily bandy, hurling, and shinty. The North American sport of lacrosse was also influential. These games were brought to North America and several similar winter games using informal rules developed, such as shinny and ice polo, but were later absorbed into a new organized game with codified rules which today is ice hockey.

The origin of ice hockey was bandy, a game that has its roots in the Middle Ages. Just as for practically all other sports, the game of bandy achieved its modern form during the 19th century in England, more exactly in the Fen district on the East coast. From the Fen district the game was spread to London and from London to the Continent during the second half of the 19th century. British soldiers stationed in eastern Canada brought the game to the North American continent in the 1850s and '60s. You could find similar games there, played by immigrants and by Indians. Thus there were a number of different games played on skates with a stick and ball and with varying rules in America before ice hockey was invented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First indoor ice hockey game</span> 1875 ice hockey game in Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal

On March 3, 1875, the first recorded indoor ice hockey game took place at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Quebec. Organized by James Creighton, who captained one of the teams, the game was between two nine-member teams, using a rubber "puck". Members used skates and sticks used for outdoor hockey and shinny games in Nova Scotia, where Creighton was born and raised. It is recognized as the first organized ice hockey game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice hockey arena</span>

An ice hockey arena is a sport venue in which an ice hockey competition is held. Alternatively it is used for other sports such as broomball, ringette and rink bandy.

References

  1. ↑ "Floor Hockey / Ringette". Search.OntarioJewishArchives.org.
  2. ↑ Beauchamp, J. Clem (September 1943). Montreal Star.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help), citing Joyce (1910).
  3. ↑ Joyce, P. W. (1910). English as We Speak It in Ireland.
  4. ↑ Watson, Ronald C.; Rickwood, Gregory D. (May 1999). "'Stewards of Ice Hockey': A Historical Review of Safety Rules in Canadian Amateur Ice Hockey". Sport History Review. 30 (1): 27–38. doi:10.1123/shr.30.1.27. ISSN   1087-1659. PMID   22439215.
  5. ↑ "From biscuits to wristers, a guide to hockey speak". ESPN.com. May 30, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Examples of distinct pucks at a vendor site: "Hockey Puck: How Products Are Made". Willies.co.uk. Archived from the original on April 4, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2009.
  7. ↑ "What is a Hockey Puck made of? (Explained) | Histoky". April 30, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  8. ↑ McKinley, Michael (2006). Hockey: A People's History . Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. p.  9. ISBN   978-0-7710-5769-4.
  9. ↑ "Historic Hockey: A History Lesson on Ice". OriginalHockeyHallOfFame.com. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  10. ↑ "McGill Man Tells of How First Rules for Hockey Were Written". The Gazette. Montreal. December 17, 1936. p. 17.
  11. ↑ "Advice – Different Types of Hockey Pucks". NF Hockey. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Fastest ice hockey shot". Guinness World Records.
  13. ↑ "Chara breaks own Hardest Shot record, hits 105.9 mph". Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy. January 29, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  14. ↑ Vestenice, Dolne (Fall 1998). "Hockey Pucks from Vegum". Slovak Heritage Live. Vol. 6, no. 3.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "How it's made: Hockey Pucks". ScienceHack. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2009.
  16. 1 2 "Olympijské góly v Soči obstarají puky z Náchoda. Překvapený je i výrobce". Hradec.Idnes.cz (in Czech). January 7, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Na MS sa bude hrať s českými pukmi, slovenské v NHL". HockeySlovakia.sk (in Slovak).
  18. ↑ "'Anybody can play': All about spongee, the 'cult' sport of Winnipeg". CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. December 16, 2017.
  19. 1 2 Canford Sponge Hockey - The Richest Man | Prairie Sky Cinematography via Youtube
  20. ↑ Spongee: Checks Lies and Videotape Part 1 and Part 2
  21. ↑ "Faculty trained to use hockey pucks to thwart shooters". SFGate . Associated Press. November 28, 2018.
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