Is It Time To End The ‘Chuck A Puck’ Promotion During Hockey Games?

If you've ever gone to a few high school or amateur hockey games there always seems to be a fundraising event that happens on the ice during one of the admissions. It's often a take on the chuck-a-puck game, where fans in the stands buy a puck for a buck, and then hurl it onto the ice to get it in a bucket or on a target for a big prize.

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Recently a Michigan AHL team had a chuck-a-puck type event but it ended up costing the home team the game due to a few fans.

The Grand Rapids Griffins lost a recent home game after fans threw their foam pucks onto the ice after a game-tieing goal in the 3rd period. As a result of the foam pucks being thrown onto the ice, the Griffins were assessed a delay of game penalty, and their opponent ended up scoring the game-winning goal on the ensuing power play.

The team went so far as to release a statement about the incident, and that they are now looking at changing the promotion based on what happened. So will other teams that offer this type of promotion, like the Norsemen or Lumberjacks, consider changing something like this up?

As a fan of amateur hockey, I'd hate to see a local team lose a game this way, all due to a few knucklehead fans. There are other ways to interact with fans/fundraise during the season without 'chucking-a-puck', like the RC car race I saw at a recent 'Jacks game.

Hopefully, the people responsible in Michigan are appropriately punished, and nothing like that happens here in Minnesota.