THEY MAKE LOOK THE SAME, BUT ALL PUCKS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

     Dr. Tom Pashby, "an internationally respected expert in
hockey equipment safety," is calling for a performance standard
for pucks.  Some pucks made in China have been breaking and other
imports, such as the Russian puck, have been known to contain
metal fragments.  Pashby tested six pucks at Canadian Standards
Association (CSA) labs, one from China and the others from
Russian, Canada and the Czech Republic.  The TORONTO STAR x-rayed
the pucks Pashby used and no metal fragments were found in any of
them, however an air bubble or softer rubber in the middle was
found in a puck from the Czech Republic.  Pashby said that if a
CSA standard is set, factories around the world would have
"surprise visits at unannounced intervals to have pucks pulled
off the assembly line for testing" (Lois Kalchman, TORONTO STAR,
10/14).