Shinny

In his book Country on Ice, Doug Beardsley claims that most Canadian hockey professional players have played some form of shinny in their youth.

[1] There is a common ritual for choosing teams, which has each player "throwing" their hockey stick into a pile at centre ice, or the middle area between two nets.

During the Great Depression, for example, northern boys used tree branches or broomhandles as sticks, a tin can, a piece of wood, and even a frozen road apple (horse dropping) as a puck.

In some municipalities around the world where the climate permits, part of a city's taxes may go to the formal set-up and maintenance of skating rinks designed specifically for shinny.

In some cities, such as Montreal, Edmonton, and Calgary, numerous rinks are erected and are maintained by civil servants throughout the winter as long as the weather allows their usage to continue.