The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I'm not a historian by any means, and certainly a city like Ottawa won't exactly excite the masses when you reveal how it came be to be and what it has gone through to get to where it's at today.

But, I live here. And I also have a passion for professional ice hockey. So by accident, coming across "Win, Tie, or Wrangle: The Inside Story of the Old Ottawa Senators", it was easy for me to pick up.

Back in grade 3, my homeroom teacher, Ms. Christie, had a class discussion about the old Senators, and this would be the only time in school, university, or anywhere else in my entire life that this era was ever discussed. I specifically remember her talking about the infamous Ottawa Silver Seven. To show how memory can be be somewhat obscured or tainted over a period of time, I had always thought the name referenced seven Stanley Cup victories. Rather, it comes from silver nuggets awarded to each of the seven members of the team after winning their first Stanley Cup. One of them remarked they should be called the Silver Seven, and the name caught on from there.

I'm just over half way through the book, and I'm not going to bore you with a simple book review. But what I want to share with you is what I felt as I've been reading it (getting in an hour here or there in between taking care of Sophie-Anne, of course). To me, it is just awesome to read how, on the corner of Bay and Gladstone, the Ottawa Senators won their first Stanley Cup in 1903, at a rink known as Dey's Arena. The building was destroyed by fire in 1920, and with it, a lot of hockey and Ottawa history. But they have a marker there posted to commemorate their Stanley Cup win, and if you use Google maps, and have the patience, you can actually see the blurry marker located in front of a retail cleaners now operating there. The oldest trophy in North American sports, at the time only 10 years old, was won by the Ottawa Hockey Club at that very location, five blocks away from where I park my car for work more than 100 years ago. Fascinating.

During this time, the term "professional" was a dirty word that took some time before being accepted by the public. Athletes, team owners, etc. took pride in their "amateur" standing, playing for the love of the sport, and working a regular full-time job when they weren't at practice or playing a game. The Stanley Cup was originally intended for amateur teams to compete for, however, many players were heading to places like Pittsburgh to earn a salary for their athletic abilities. Canadian teams, to compete with this "brawn" drain (Ottawa included) would give "bonuses" at the end of the season, away from the public eye in a manner that wouldn't ruin a person's so-called amateur standing. Or find a nice government job for their top scoring winger, away from the factories and the mills. Perhaps it was around this time that playing solely for the love of the game was lost.

In any case, I'm really enjoying this book, knowing the layout of the city and picturing an old arena being located, for example, on Laurier Ave in front of what's now City Hall. I'll be writing some stories from time to time about the actual history of the old Senators, be it a special game they played or a story about one of the many Hall of Famers the Ottawa hockey clubs produced until their last season in 1934. Ottawa is a relatively young town, and to me it's a shame their past hockey history isn't talked about more.

Or perhaps I just haven't been paying enough attention.