Goofy puck question?

[Goaliedad]

Okay my kids usually shoot about 100 to 200 pucks a day at a hockey net in the driveway. Most of these pucks I either bought or got from team practices. About 30 or so pucks came from Bruins practices where the players gave them to the kids. I have been told that the pucks used by the pro's are different from regular pucks in that they are harder and denser. I didn't believe this but I have noticed that the non-Bruins pucks are deteriorating at a much more rapid rate than the Bruins pucks. Also my kids noticed that the Bruins pucks don't bounce as much. I looked into this and I discovered that if I drop the Bruins puck flat on ground it lands flat with no bounce and if I do the same with the non-Bruins puck they will bounce. I tried shooting the Bruins pucks and the do seem to shoot better than the regular pucks. Am I CRAZY or is there really a difference between the pro pucks and the regular pucks?

[sloth2946]

Interesting...most interesting!!!

PS: Zoolander was awesome!

[Snydes1987]

i don't think there's a difference......i have like ten bluejackets pucks that i've gotten from practices and they seem to be the same as all the other pucks i have around the house. The only thing the pros do different is they freeze the pucks before they use them.

[Goaliedad]

Here's a copy of an email responce I received concerning if the pucks were in fact different.

"Yes and no.. If they are NHL game pucks they are different, if they
are souvenirs, they are not much different. The game pucks are injected
molded, and more expensive to make. They alledgedly bounce less. They do
have the leagues believing this. Talking to players the game pucks do seem
to bounce less.
Different companies can vary a bit.. Look at the edges and compare.
This may let you know if they are different or not.
I hope this helps,
Being from Boston, I would guess they would have a Made in Canada, Inglasco
NHL edge.. If so they may be superior."

The pucks do have "made in Canada Inglasco" stamped on the sides. We have a souvener puck which merely has China stamped on the side. And then we have youth hockey pucks which say Vegum made in Slovokia.

So maybe the pucks are different and we aren't wacko here.

[Dr Dave]

I always felt lousy giving up goals that any NHL goalie would have easily stopped. Now that I know it is a difference in the pucks rather than my lack of skill I feel much better about myself.

[ouch!]

So where do those pucks come from with the slightly concave faces? Have you seen those? A couple have shown up in our puck bucket for drop-in. Weird.

[Goaliedad]

I have seen refs on occasion in youth hockey games replace pucks that are either bouncing strangely or ones that don't slide well on the ice. There was a game this season where the puck just stopped everytime it was passed on the ice. The ref changed it for another puck that slid normally. The only time I remember having problems with pucks when I played was when the our high school coach bought a couple gross of really cheap pucks. When we used them in practice they wouldn't slide on the ice, we couldn't stickhandle them because they just stopped, and they were weird to shoot. The pucks didn't feel right. It took the whole team complaining for him to do something about it.

[Bryan]

There is a difference between different brands of pucks, and different countries of origins.

Canadian made pucks are actually mandated by a lot of arenas. Not the leagues, the rinks, have signs saying "CANADIAN MADE PUCKS ONLY". This because Canadian mfrs have higher standards for molding process and for raw materials used. The Czech and Slovak pucks are primarily made from recycled tires, meaning there is often a lot of other stuff in there besides the rubber. Some stuff makes em bounce eratically, some stuff (like bits of metal) can break the glass too easily. They also tend to mark up the glass, boards and equipment a lot more. And, as you discovered, the edges tend to chip off very easily.

It isn't a question of 'pro vs. regular'. Most stores (around here anyway) ONLY carry the good ones, so they ARE the regular puck as far as I'm concerned, and the others are just 'cheap ones'.

In my experience, the Viceroy pucks are the most consistantly high quality. In Glas Co. pucks are generally top shelf, but not always. They don't actually make all of their pucks in Canada. Some of them are brought in from Slovakia. You have to read the fine print whenever you buy pucks. The Vegum pucks are practically unusable, IMO they aren't meant for being used to actually PLAY hockey (at any level), they are strictly for souvenirs.