Adapted from Chapter 8
Over their three-year reign as Stanley Cup champions (1903-1905), the Ottawas, or Silver Seven as they were sometimes nicknamed, attracted a large following among sports-page readers from Halifax to Vancouver. While they rolled to twenty wins against two losses in league play, it was their Stanley Cup prowess that took them from being a team of regional interest to one commanding national attention.
In March of 1903, Ottawa defeated the Montreal Victorias in a two-game total-goals series to claim the Stanley Cup for the first time. Later that month, the team defended its title with a similar win over the Rat Portage (later Kenora) Thistles. It was after this win that team manager and mining magnate Bob Shillington presented each player with one silver nugget, prompting the nickname Silver Seven.
Mining magnate and Senators manager Bob Shillington presented silver nuggets to the 1903 Stanley Cup-winning Ottawas prompting the nickname Silver Seven. IMAGE: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA C34882
Then in January of 1904, Ottawa defended its Stanley Cup title with a victory over the Winnipeg Rowing Club. Ottawa beat the Winnipeg team in three games in a best-of-three series. Ottawa defended the Cup three more times that winter, defeating challengers from Toronto, Montreal and Brandon. Many of the team’s games in defence of the Cup took place in the Aberdeen Pavilion. The distinctive structure, situated at the heart of the city’s Lansdowne Park, stands to this day.
The Central Canada Exhibition turned the Aberdeen Pavilion into a hockey arena for the 1904 Stanley Cup Games. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA PA8938
In nine series against clubs from three provinces, the Ottawas won fifteen matches, lost three and tied one. Even in Vancouver, where hockey meant the field version unless ice was specified, the Ottawas were becoming household names: Alf Smith, Harry “Rat” Westwick, Art Moore, Frank McGee, and Harvey Pulford.
Source: Kitchen, Paul. Win, Tie, Or Wrangle: The Inside Story of the Old Ottawa Senators, 1883-1935. Manotick: Penumbra Press, 2008.