Although shins take a beating during a game of shinny, the name comes from the Celtic game of shinty.
A pick-up game of hockey, either on the street or on ice, shinny has no formal rules, and the goals are marked by whatever is handy.
The puck can be anything from a ball to a tin can.
There’s no hoisting, bodychecking, or lifting the puck because no one wears pads.
“Shinny” is a uniquely Canadian expression.
The first professional shin pads were hand-stitched leather-covered strips of bamboo, wrapped around the lower leg outside knee-high stockings.
For many Canadian kids during the 1930s and 1940s, copies of the Eaton’s catalog shoved into their socks were their first shin pads.
