We all understand that technology is the way of the future, not just for every house, but more so the sporting world.

Hockey a while back used the Fox “tracker” puck that when behind the boards was hard to follow as well as the elimination of the goal judge, encased in a box behind the goalie, but not our of reach from the fans.

Now we are hearing that there will be more technology added in the NHL this year for the playoffs which is in the form of a tracker.

There will be six inserts for allowing them to track the puck, which include subtle players to wear white tags to track speed and plenty other data that will be available to viewers.

It is set to be unveiled in the playoffs and will track player movement, which will be good for the fans, announcers as well as owners, which could have an effect on player contracts.

In a report from Eric Francis, NHL Insider of Sportsnet, the NHL is set to introduce new pucks equipped with “player tracking technology” during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It’s for sure that they have to be the same weight, size and feel of the pucks they currently use so as not to create any issues as we have seen in the past.

Steve McArdle, the NHL’s executive vice-president of digital media and strategic planning, said during a media briefing “This was an important thing for us over the past months and years, making sure that the puck performs the way we expect it to in real-time situations.” 

It’s reported that the league (NHL) has conducted hundreds of tests on the new pucks, which include shooting it out of a “puck cannon” and reviewing the after effects of the shot.

Keith Horstman, the NHL’s vice-president of information technology. Mentioned “We haven’t been able to break this one yet and we shot it [at] 170 mph, 20 times, and it didn’t break, it didn’t deform.

He continued “We’ve been trying to get them to tell us what the break point is and they can’t get the gun [to fire] high enough.”

McArdle said: “No cracking, no breaking. The rubber held up. No damage to the puck. We hit the corner of the puck on the crossbar to test various points of potential failure.”

While we will never know it’s reported that it has been tested in nine (9) NHL games in nine different buildings over the past month. 

It’s reported that the testing will continue in 11 more games this coming month, which will include a March 19 contest in Toronto that is planned to “showcase” the latest technology on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ broadcast.

McArdle mentioned “Feedback has been minimal and we have not heard in live-game situations or complaints about the performance of the puck. In fact, we’ve heard very little coming out of a lot of game experiences. So we’re happy about that.”

He continued “Our partners have been trying to make sure that this thing looks and feels and performs as close to the real thing we have today as possible key players have been playing with it during practices and the feedback has been minimal.”

We are hearing that each puck costs $100 to produce and the pucks are able to transmit data 60 times per second, which will include data such as location, speed, acceleration and deceleration and distance travelled. 

This information, along with tracking data gathered from tagging devices worn by players, will be displayed on broadcasts during playoffs.

It’ll be interesting to see if any of this info will be used or held against the player during contract negotiations.

Only time will tell???

There’s no question it’s different from Peter Puck!!!