Good news sportaholiks! Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment (the folks who own the Leafs, Raptors, and FC) have donated $2.3 million dollars over the next few years to uprade Toronto indoor and outdoor ice rinks. So, curse them all you want when they gouge you for watching a sub par product (the Leafs… actually, throw the Raptors and FC in there too!) but it’s nice to see them contributing some of their money making machine towards recreational hockey players. Don’t forget, we’ve got a nice map of Toronto shinny rinks for when winter returns.

Yes, we’re well past the mid of the Toronto winter (most would say that’s a good thing!), but we’re launching our Toronto skating rinks map regardless. There’s still time to get your skates on and enjoy the outdoors. There are more Toronto skating rinks than you see there in the default view of the map. If you don’t live in the core of the city simply zoom out our drag the map to another area that is off the map (for example, north Etobicoke or north Scarborough). The yellow pins refer to rinks that offer skate rentals (at the moment this is just Nathan Phillips Square and Natrel Rink at Harbourfront). My personal favourite, between those two, is Harbourfront. It seems less crowded usually. Of course there’s always something special about skating at Nathan Phillips Square, especially when the Square is decorated in Christmas colours! I’ve skated at a few others as well: Ryerson’s pond (Lake Devo), right on the Ryerson University campus, offers a unique experience as you skate amongst hunks of rock that protrude from the lake. That rink is also a minute or so walk from Dundas Station, so it’s easy to get to. You could even follow up some skating with a nice meal from the nearby restaurants, or grab a pint at the area pubs. Late at night when the lights go down, you’ll see Ryerson’s rink it turn into a shinny game featuring people of all ages - usually those living nearby, including the Ryerson students in Residence. A bit further up Yonge (Yonge and College/Gerrard) is another small pond (Barbara Ann Scott) that seems to be rarely used, at least any time I’ve walked by. This is likely a good alternative for some quiet, reflecting skating without the worry of running into people. Of course, they’ve built a zillion condos around there lately so that may have changed for this winter. Along with the Toronto Skating Rinks map, we also mapped the rinks that allow for shinny at certain times of the day. Check out the Toronto Shinny Rinks map for a shinny game near you. Years ago I used to play at Campbell Park (Landsdowne & Dupont) which always had a good game on shinny on Sunday mornings. Check toronto.ca/parks for current shinny times. Enjoy!

Attention all Toronto shinny hockey players: We’ve put together a Google map of Toronto shinny rinks for you to easily find shinny rinks near you. From Etobicoke to Scarborough, Lake Ontario up to Steeles, we’ve taken a list of City of Toronto rinks that offer shinny and placed them on an easy to use map. Note that most of these rinks have special times that shinny is played (as they are shared with pleasure skating times). Also, many of the time slots are for certain ages, gender, or skill levels. We thought about including all of this data, but decided to link instead to a resource that has it, ensuring accurate information going forward. Find a rink that’s near you and then click through on the link to the City of Toronto Parks site that provides you with schedules for each rink. If you are looking for more detailed information about the rinks themselves, try cityrinks.ca, which has a crazy (crazy good!) amount of information about each rink. Enjoy!