Why is it called hockey puck?

Hockey puck is a disc made of vulcanized rubber and serves equal to a ball in many games. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in Scottish Gaelic “puc” means punch or deliver a blow and the word is used in game of hurling where the ball is pushed or strike. Scottish emigrants in Canada played the game and early hockey resembles hurling on ice. It is safe to assume that the name puck in ice hockey may have come from the game of hurling. By 1891 hockey game was well established in Canada along with the name “puck.” It appears that first hockey pucks were made of rubber from sliced-up Lacrosse balls. The work “puck” was first introduced in the Montreal Gazette on February 7, 1876 and therefore, the NHL considers that date as the birthday of the hockey puck regardless that the puck was used many decades before. During an NHL game, approximately 12 pucks are being used. In some instances more 22 pucks have been used during a game.

In ice hockey, the modern standard puck is black, one inch thick, three inches in diameter and weighs between 5.5 and six ounces.