<P> Early 19th - century paintings depict shinney (or "shinny"), an early form of hockey with no standard rules which was played in Nova Scotia . Many of these early games absorbed the physical aggression of what the Onondaga called dehuntshigwa'es (lacrosse). Shinney was played on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal and Quebec City, and in Kingston, Ontario and Ottawa, Ontario . The number of players was often large . To this day, shinney (derived from "shinty") is a popular Canadian term for an informal type of hockey, either ice or street hockey . </P> <P> Thomas Chandler Haliburton, in The Attache: Second Series (published in 1844) imagined a dialogue, between two of the novel's characters, which mentions playing "hurly on the long pond on the ice". This has been interpreted by some historians from Windsor, Nova Scotia as reminiscence of the days when the author was a student at King's College School in that town in 1810 and earlier . Based on Haliburton's quote, claims were made that modern hockey was invented in Windsor, Nova Scotia, by King's College students and perhaps named after an individual ("Colonel Hockey's game"). Others claim that the origins of hockey come from games played in the area of Dartmouth and Halifax in Nova Scotia . However, several references have been found to hurling and shinty being played on the ice long before the earliest references from both Windsor and Dartmouth / Halifax, and the word "hockey" was used to designate a stick - and - ball game at least as far back as 1773, as it was mentioned in the book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education by Richard Johnson (Pseud . Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey". </P> <P> While the game's origins lie elsewhere, Montreal is at the centre of the development of the sport of contemporary ice hockey, and is recognized as the birthplace of organized ice hockey . On March 3, 1875, the first organized indoor game was played at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink between two nine - player teams, including James Creighton and several McGill University students . Instead of a ball or bung, the game featured a "flat circular piece of wood" (to keep it in the rink and to protect spectators). The goal posts were 8 feet (2.4 m) apart (today's goals are six feet wide). </P> <P> In 1876, games played in Montreal were "conducted under the' Hockey Association' rules"; the Hockey Association was England's field hockey organization . In 1877, The Gazette (Montreal) published a list of seven rules, six of which were largely based on six of the Hockey Association's twelve rules, with only minor differences (even the word "ball" was kept); the one added rule explained how disputes should be settled . The McGill University Hockey Club, the first ice hockey club, was founded in 1877 (followed by the Quebec Hockey Club in 1878 and the Montreal Victorias in 1881). In 1880, the number of players per side was reduced from nine to seven . </P>

When was the first ice hockey game played