Puck (sports)

A hockey puck is a disk made of vulcanized rubber that serves the same functions in various games as a ball does in ball games. The best-known use of pucks is in ice hockey, a major international sport.

Many tribes throughout North America played a version of field hockey which involved some type of "puck" or ball, and curved wooden sticks. Ice hockey was first observed by Europeans being played by Mi'kmaq Indians in Nova Scotia in the late 17th century. It was called ricket by the Natives. The game was played utilizing a frozen as the first puck. Eventually, they began to carve pucks from cherrywood, which was the puck of preference until late in the century when rubber imported by Euro-Americans replaced the wood.

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

It is possible that Halifax, Nova Scotia natives, many of whom were Irish and played hurling, may have introduced the word to Canada. The first known printed reference was in Montreal, Quebec in 1876 (Montreal Gazette of February 7, 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" (colloquial for the goal/net) is to score a goal.

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); 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. Pucks are frozen before the game to reduce bouncing during play.

Ice hockey and its various precursor games utilized balls until the late 19th century. By the 1870s, 'flat' pucks were made of wood as well as rubber. At first, pucks were square. The first recorded organized game of ice hockey used a wooden puck to prevent it from leaving the rink of play. The rubber pucks were first made by slicing a rubber ball, then trimming the disc square. The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal is credited with making and using the first round pucks in the 1880s.

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