Hockey puck A puck is a disk used in various types of games serving the same functions as a ball in ball games . The best - known use of pucks is in ice hockey , a major international sport . Ice hockey requires a hard disk of vulcanized rubber . A standard ice hockey puck is black , 1 inch thick ( 25 . 4 mm ) , 3 inches in diameter ( 76 . 2 mm ) , and weighs between 5 . 5 and 6 ounces ( 156 - 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 . The game evolved in Great Britain by 1820 from bandy , which was played with a ball on ice by field hockey players who wanted to continue to train during the European winters . Early forms of ice hockey , once known as " Canadian rules bandy " , used a ball rather than a puck when it first came to North America from Europe . Early players of the game found that the rubber ball used in field hockey was far too active on the hard ice surface . Today , pucks are frozen a few hours before the game to further reduce bouncing during play . The origin of the word " puck " is obscure . Though commonly believed to be it is evidently not connected to Shakespeare ' s Puck or the mythical Puck . 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 : PUCK , a blow . He gave him a puck of a stick on the head . More commonly applied to a punch or blow of the horns of a cow or goat ! ( Ask Little Britainers ! ) The cow gave him a puck ( or pucked him ) with her horns and knocked him down . The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his caman or hurley ( stick ) is always called a puck . Also , a free shot in hurling is a free puck . It is possible that Halifax natives , many of whom were Irish and played hurley , may have 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 . Variations . A number of variations on the standard black , 6 oz ( 170 g ) hockey puck exist . One of the most common is a blue , 4 oz ( 113 g ) puck that is used for training younger players who are not yet able to use a standard puck . Heavier 10 oz ( 283 g ) training pucks , typically reddish pink or reddish orange in color , 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 which weigh 2 lb ( 900 g ) ; these pucks are not used for shooting , as they could seriously harm other players . 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 . The FoxTrax " smart puck " was developed by the FOX television network when it held NHL broadcasting rights for the U . S . 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 traditional hockey fans and did not meet its intended objective of drawing new viewers to the game . The experiment was short - lived ( 1996 – 98 ) . In game play . During a game , pucks can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour ( 160 – km / h ) or more when struck , and 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 goalie mask . The most serious incident involving a spectator took place on March 18 , 2002 , when a thirteen year old girl , Brittanie Cecil , died two days after being struck on the head by a hockey puck deflected into the crowd at a National Hockey League 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 tragedy , plexiglass panels sitting atop the boards of hockey rinks to protect spectators have been supplemented with mesh nets that extend above the upper edge of the plexiglass . " Icing the puck " is shooting the puck from the defending player ' s half of the playing surface ( their side of the center red line ) across the opposing teams goal line on either side of the goal , as a delaying tactic or a ( sometimes desperate ) defensive play intended to shift the momentum of play away from the offensive team . Except when the defending team is short - handed because of a penalty , it is a rule infraction that generally results in a stoppage of play to return the puck to the offending team ' s end of the ice for a faceoff . Since the resumption of play in the National Hockey League after the 2004 – 05 lockout , a team that has a player ice the puck also must keep the same players on the ice , for the ensuing face - off , as were on the ice when the icing infraction happened . During the 2005 – 06 season , a rule was implemented which penalizes any player intentionally or accidentally shooting the puck out of the rink from their team ' s defensive zone . The rule was intended to eliminate the contradictory nature of the previous version of the rule , which only applied to goaltenders . 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 . Major manufacturers of pucks exist only in Canada , India , Russia , Slovakia , the Czech Republic and the People ' s Republic of China . 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 . This mixture is then turned in a machine composed of metal rollers , where workers add extra natural rubber , and ensure that the mixing is even . Samples are then put into a machine that analyzes if the rubber will harden at the right temperature . An automated appartus , called a pultrusion machine , extrudes the rubber into long circular logs that are three inches in diameter and then cut into one inch thick pieces while it is still soft . These pre - forms are then manually put into molds that are the exact size of a finished puck . There are up to 200 mold cavities per molding palett , capapble of producing up to 5 , 000 pucks per week . The molds are then compressed . This compression may be done cold and or with the molds heated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 minutes , depending upon the proprietary methods of the manufacturer . They come out hard and then are allowed to site for 24 hours . Each puck is manually cleaned with a trimmer machine to get rid of excess rubber . The molding 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 . Sourvenir and 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 molds 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 .