What is a puck made of?
An ice hockey puck is made of hard vulcanized rubber. A standard puck is 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick and weighs about 6 ounces (170 grams).
Vulcanized rubber is rubber treated with sulfur and heat, which makes it tough and durable. Pucks are made by molding the rubber and cooling it. The edges have a textured pattern that helps players' sticks grip the puck. Pucks are black so they stand out against the white ice.
Before games, NHL pucks are frozen in a freezer to make them less bouncy and help them slide smoothly. Many pucks are used during a single game because they warm up and start bouncing. Shots by top players can send pucks flying at more than 160 kilometers per hour.
Early pucks
In the early days of hockey in the 1800s, players sometimes used balls, wooden blocks or even frozen cow dung. Rubber balls were cut in half or trimmed to stop them bouncing too much, leading to the flat puck shape. The origin of the word puck is uncertain.
Did You Know?
In 1996, the Fox network used a glowing puck with a computer-generated trail on TV broadcasts. It was unpopular with many fans and soon dropped.