Hockey Puck

The word "puck" first appears in print in the Montreal Gazette on February 7, 1876, describing an early hockey match -- a date often cited as the puck's official birthday. Before standardized rubber pucks, early games experimented with whatever round or roughly flat objects were on hand. The breakthrough came with vulcanized rubber, a chemical treatment developed for rubber goods generally, which the Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal is credited with adopting for pucks in the 1880s -- producing a tougher, more elastic disc that could survive being struck at speed without cracking.

Vulcanized rubber pucks spread through professional leagues over the following decades, and the NHL standardized the modern 3-inch, 1-inch-thick puck specification in the 20th century as the league organized and codified its equipment rules.

NHL teams keep game pucks in a freezer and swap in a fresh frozen puck throughout play. Rubber at room temperature is more elastic and bounces unpredictably off the ice and boards; freezing stiffens the rubber, cutting down on bounce so the puck slides and responds more predictably to stick contact. Under hot arena lighting, a puck left at room temperature would start to warm and become noticeably livelier within minutes of hitting the ice, which is why officials rotate in cold replacements throughout a game rather than reusing one puck for long stretches.