Hockey Puck Low-poly 3D model

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A hockey puck, made from vulcanized rubber, serves as a disk in various games that functions like a ball in ball games. This essential component gained fame in ice hockey, a major international sport. The precursor games of ice hockey used balls until the late 19th century, after which flat pucks were made of wood and later rubber, with square designs initially. The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal is credited for making and using the first round pucks in the 1880s. Indigenous persons from North America played a version of field hockey with some type of puck or ball, along with curved wooden sticks, which was observed by Europeans being played by Mi'kmaqs in Nova Scotia in the late 17th century. The game was called ricket by the Mi'kmaqs and they used cherrywood for making pucks until rubber imported by Euro-Americans replaced it later. Several variations of standard black, 6-ounce (170 g) hockey puck exist. One common variation is a blue, 4-ounce (110 g) puck used for training younger players who are not yet able to use a standard puck. Heavier 10-ounce (280 g) training pucks, typically reddish pink or reddish orange in colour, are 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 that weigh 2 pounds (910 g); these pucks are not used for shooting as they could seriously harm other players. White pucks are used for goaltender practice, regulation size and weight but made from white rubber. A hollow, light-weight fluorescent orange puck is available for road or floor hockey, while other variants with plastic ball-bearings or glides are available for use in road or roller hockey. Two major developments have been devised to create better puck visibility on television broadcasts - the Firepuck and the FoxTrax smart puck. The Firepuck incorporated coloured retro reflective materials of either embedded lens elements or prismatic reflectors laminated into recesses on the flat surfaces and the vertical edge of a standard hockey puck, with yellow being the preferred reflected colour. A spotlight was required to be positioned on the TV camera and focused at the centre of viewing area. The FoxTrax smart puck had integrated electronics to track its position on screen; a blue streak traced the path of the puck across the ice, turning red if the puck was shot especially hard. However, both these developments were discontinued due to various reasons. During a game, pucks can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) or more when struck. The current world record is held by Denis Kulyash of KHL's Avangard Omsk, who slapped a puck at the 2011 KHL All-Star Game skills competition in Riga, Latvia with a speed of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h). Fast-flying pucks are potentially dangerous to players and spectators, leading to the evolution of various types of protective gear for players, most notably the goaltender mask. The most serious incident involving a spectator took place on March 18, 2002, when a 13-year-old girl, Brittanie Cecil, died two days after being struck on the head by a hockey puck deflected into the crowd at a NHL 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 event, the glass or plexiglass panels that sit atop the boards of hockey rinks to protect spectators have been supplemented with mesh nets that extend above the upper edge of the glass. A smaller and lighter version of the standard puck exists for junior competition and is approximately 1 lb 12 oz (0.80–0.85 kg) and of similar construction to the standard puck. While there are numerous regional variations in colour, construction and materials all must conform to international regulations stipulating overall dimensions and weight. The term puck is sometimes also applied to similar (though often smaller) gaming discs in other sports and games, including novuss, shuffleboard, table shuffleboard, box hockey and air hockey. Hockey pucks of regulation 3-inch (7.6 cm) diameter and 1-inch (2.5 cm) thickness may be used as mechanical vibration dampening isolators in places such as feet for light industrial air compressors, and air conditioning units because they are of regulation materials and therefore consistent manufacture, size and shape, and are constructed of a repeatable and consistent vulcanized rubber material. The hockey puck has many uses other than its original, intended purpose by virtue of its consistent physical properties, and is used as a last-ditch defense against active shooters in some instances.