Early amateur era (1883–1902) The Ottawa Hockey Club (Ottawa HC) was founded by a small group of like-minded hockey enthusiasts. A month after witnessing games of hockey at the
1883 Montreal Winter Carnival,
Halder Kirby,
Jack Kerr and
Frank Jenkins met and founded the club. The club first participated competitively at the
1884 Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournament (considered the Canadian championship at the time) wearing red and black uniforms. Future Ottawa mayor
Nelson Porter is recorded as the scorer of the club's first-ever goal, at the 1884 Carnival. It was composed of several clubs from Montreal plus a Quebec City club and the Ottawa club. Ottawa's
Thomas D. Green was named the first president of the league.
OHA championships The team was the OHA champion for that league's first three years. The
first championship was played on March 7, 1891, at the Rideau rink and was won 5–0 by Ottawa over Toronto St. George's. The 1891 championship was the only OHA final played in Ottawa, as Ottawa played the 1892 final in Toronto, defeating
Osgoode Hall 4–2, and in 1893, the
Toronto Granites defaulted by not appearing for the championship match scheduled for Ottawa. The club resigned from the OHA in February 1894 after the OHA refused the club's demand to have the 1894 final in Ottawa and ordered Ottawa HC to play the final in Toronto. The dispute caused a permanent schism between Ottawa area teams competing in the Ottawa City Hockey League (OCHL) and the Ontario Hockey Association. Ottawa and area teams remain unaffiliated with the OHA; the official association under
Hockey Canada is
Hockey Eastern Ontario. It was at a dinner to honour the
1892 OHA champions at the
Russell Hotel that the Governor General,
Lord Stanley, announced his new Dominion Challenge Trophy, now known as the
Stanley Cup, for the Canadian champions. Former player and president of the club, P. D. Ross, was selected by Stanley to be a trustee of the Cup. and executive.Standing: P. D. Ross, G. P. Murphy, Chauncey Kirby, Don Watters.Seated: Jim Smellie, Alf Smith, Harvey Pulford, Weldy Young, Joe McDougal.Bottom row: Harry Westwick, Fred Chittick, H. Russell
Re-entry into the AHAC Ottawa HC did not win a game in its return to AHAC challenge play in
1890–91, but in the next season of AHAC play in
1891–92 the club won the league championship, and held it for most of the season, from January 10 until March 7, 1892. The club took the championship from Montreal HC, who were previously undefeated, and won five straight games before Montreal won the championship back by a 1–0 score in the last challenge of the season. Montreal's win in the final challenge was their only win of the season and their only one in four games against Ottawa. Lord Stanley, who often attended Ottawa HC games, felt the loss of the title after holding it all season was an unsuitable way to determine the championship. In the letter announcing the Stanley Cup, Stanley suggested that the AHAC start a 'round-robin' type regular season format, which the AHAC implemented in the following season of
1892–93. The key match-up in that season for Ottawa was a loss in the opening game of the season against the Montreal Victorias on January 7, 1893, as Ottawa split its season series with eventual winner Montreal HC, both teams otherwise winning all of their games. This loss provided the one game margin in the standings that led to Lord Stanley awarding the initial Cup to Montreal HC. In
1893–1894, Ottawa HC finished in a four-way tie for first in the AHAC standings. A playoff was arranged in Montreal for the championship between Ottawa, Montreal HC and Montreal Victorias (the other first place club, Quebec, having dropped out of the playoff). These games would be the first Stanley Cup playoff games ever played. As the 'away' team, Ottawa was given a bye to the final game. On March 23, 1894, at the
Victoria Rink, Ottawa and Montreal HC played for the championship. Ottawa scored the first goal, but Montreal would score the next three to win the game 3–1. Ottawa captain Weldy Young fainted from exhaustion at the end of the game. For the period of 1894 to 1900, the club did not win the league championship, finishing as high as second several times, and fifth (last) once. For the 1896–97 season, the Ottawa club unveiled the first use of the 'barber-pole' style sweaters of horizontal bars of black, red and white. This basic style would be used by the club until 1954 except for the 1900 and 1901 seasons, when the team used a plain sweater with only the letter 'O' on the front. In 1898, the AHAC dissolved over the admission of the intermediate-level team Ottawa Capitals of the rival Capital Amateur Association to the AHAC by a vote of the league executive. The Capitals had won the intermediate championship of the AHAC and were eligible to join the senior ranks. After they were outvoted by the intermediate-level teams of AHAC which wanted to promote the Capitals to the senior-level, the senior-level Ottawa, Montreal HC, Montreal Victorias and Quebec clubs left the AHAC and formed the
Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL), shutting out the Capitals. The club won the CAHL
1901 season title, its first league championship since winning the OHA in 1893. It wished to challenge the Stanley Cup champion
Winnipeg Victorias at first but chose not to after deliberating for a week after the season, although it also had the option to challenge in the 1902 season. According to hockey historian Charles L. Coleman, it was due to the "lateness of the season".
The Ottawa Journal openly supported the idea, stating that the players were 'racked' and would be at a serious disadvantage to travel to Winnipeg. Notable players of this period included Albert Morel and Fred Chittick in goal, leaders of the league several times in goaltending, and future Hall of Famers
Harvey Pulford,
Alf Smith,
Harry Westwick and brothers
Bruce Stuart and
Hod Stuart. It was during this period that the nickname
Senators was first used; however, from 1903 to 1906, the team is better known as the
Silver Seven. Silver Seven era (1903–1906) The first "dynasty" of the Ottawa HC was from 1903 until 1906, when the team was known as the "Silver Seven". The era started with the arrival of
Frank McGee for the 1903 season and ended with his retirement after the 1906 season. Having lost an eye in local amateur hockey, he was persuaded, despite the threat of permanent blindness, to join the Senators. The youngest player on the team and standing tall, he went on to score 135 goals in 45 games. In the 1905 challenge against the
Dawson City Nuggets, he scored 14 goals in a 23–2 win. He retired in 1906 at the age of 23. In the
1903 CAHL season, Ottawa and the Montreal Victorias both finished in first place with 6–2 records. The top scorers were the Victorias'
Russell Bowie, who scored seven goals in one game and six in another, and McGee, whose top performance saw him score five goals in a game. The two clubs faced off in a two-game total goals series to decide the league championship and Stanley Cup. The first game, played in Montreal on slushy ice that made it a desperate struggle to score, ended 1–1. The return match in Ottawa, witnessed by fans, was on ice coated with an inch of water. The conditions did not hinder Ottawa, as they won 8–0, with McGee scoring three goals and the other five shared among the three Gilmour brothers, Dave (3), Suddy (1) and Bill (1), to win their first Cup. This started a period in which the team held the Stanley Cup and defeated all challengers until March 1906. For that Stanley Cup win, each of the team's players was given a silver nugget by team executive
Bob Shillington, an Ottawa druggist and mining investor. He gave them nuggets instead of money since the players were still technically amateurs and to give them money would have meant disqualification from the league. In a 1957 interview, Harry Westwick recalled that at the presentation "One of the players said 'We ought to call ourselves the Silver Seven.' and the name caught on right there." (At the time, hockey teams iced seven men—a goaltender, three forwards, two defencemen and a
rover). The Silver Seven moved between three leagues during this time, and for a time were independent of any league. In February 1904, during the CAHL season, Ottawa resigned from the league in a dispute over the replaying of a game. The team had arrived late for a game in Montreal and the game had been called at midnight, with a tied score. The league demanded that the game be replayed. The club agreed to play only if the game mattered in the standings. The impasse led to Ottawa leaving the league. For the rest of that winter, the club played only in Cup challenge series. Quebec went on to win the championship of the league and demanded the Stanley Cup, but the Cup's trustees ruled that Ottawa still retained it. The trustees offered to arrange a challenge between Ottawa and the CAHL champion, but the CAHL refused to consider it. The next season, Ottawa joined the
Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), winning the league championship. The club was only in the FAHL for one season, and the
Montreal Wanderers became their new rival. For the 1906 season, Ottawa, the Wanderers and several of the CAHL teams, formed the
Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), unifying the top teams into one league.
Style of play '' of opinion of Ottawa Silver Seven"The Ottawa hockey team may not be able to play hockey, but it can show the excited populace the latest fancy designs in attempted murder."|alt=person wearing skates, pushing gun on ice The Silver Seven were well known for the number of injuries that they inflicted on other teams. In a Stanley Cup challenge game in 1904, the Ottawas injured seven of the nine Winnipeg players, and the
Winnipeg Free Press called it the "bloodiest game in Ottawa." The next team to challenge the Ottawas, the
Toronto Marlboroughs, were treated similarly. According to the Toronto
Globe: The style of hockey seems to be the only one known and people consider it quite proper and legitimate for a team to endeavor to incapacitate their opponents rather than to excel them in skill and speed ... slashing, tripping, the severest kind of cross-checking and a systematic method of hammering Marlboroughs on hand and wrists are the most effective points in Ottawa's style. According to one player, the "Marlboroughs got off very easily. When Winnipeg Rowing Club played here, most of their players were carried off on stretchers."
Dawson City challenge The Silver Seven participated in perhaps the most famous (described as "the most storied of all Stanley Cup challenges", "a fantastic legend in Cup history", and "one of the most memorable feats in Canadian sporting history") Stanley Cup challenge of all, that of
Dawson City of the
Yukon Territory in 1905. Organized by Joe Boyle, a Toronto-born prospector, who had struck it rich in the
Yukon gold rush of 1898, The Dawson City Nuggets had Lorne Hanna, who had played for Brandon against Ottawa in a
1904 challenge and two former elite hockey players: Weldy Young, who had played for Ottawa in the 1890s, and D. R. McLennan, who had played for
Queen's College against the Montreal Victorias in an
1895 challenge. The remaining players were selected from other Dawson City clubs. Dawson City's challenge was accepted in the summer of 1904 by the Stanley Cup trustees and scheduled to start on Friday, January 13, 1905. The date of the challenge meant that Young had to travel separately to Ottawa, as he had to work in a federal election that December and would meet the club in Ottawa. To get to Ottawa, several thousand miles away, the club had to get to
Whitehorse by overland sleigh, catch a train from there to
Skagway, Alaska, then catch a steamer to
Vancouver,
B.C. and a train from there to Ottawa. On December 18, 1904, several players set out by
dog sled and the rest left the next day by bicycle for a 330-mile trek to Whitehorse. At first the team made good progress, but the weather turned warm enough to thaw the roads, forcing the players to walk several hundred miles. The team spent the nights in police sheds along the road. At Whitehorse, the weather turned bad, causing the trains not to run for three days and the Nuggets to miss their steamer in Skagway. The next one could not dock for three days due to the ice buildup. The club found the sea journey treacherous, and it caused
seasickness amongst the team. When the steamer reached Vancouver, the area was too fogged in to dock, and the steamer docked in
Seattle. The team then caught a train to Vancouver. The team left Vancouver on January 6, 1905, arriving in Ottawa on January 11. Despite the difficult journey, the Ottawas refused to change the date of the first game, only two days away. Ottawa arranged hospitable accommodations for the Dawson City team. The Yukoners received a huge welcome at the train station, had a welcoming dinner, and used the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association's rooms for the duration of their stay. Young did not arrive in time to play for Dawson. The first game was close at the halfway point, Ottawa leading Dawson three to one. In the second half, the play became violent. Norman Watt of Dawson tripped Ottawa's
Art Moore, who retaliated with a stick to the mouth of Watt. Watt promptly knocked Moore out, hitting him on the head with his stick. The game ended 9–2 for Ottawa. The game left a poor taste in the mouth for the Yukoners, who complained that several goals were
offside. After the game, Watt was quoted as saying "[Frank] McGee doesn't look like too much", as he had only scored once in the first game. McGee scored four goals in the first half of the second match and 10 in the second half, leading Ottawa to a 23–2 score; his 14 goals remains a record for a single game of major senior hockey. Eight of those 14 goals were scored consecutively in a span of less than nine minutes. Despite this high score, the newspapers claimed that Albert Forrest, the Dawson City goalie, had played a "really fine game", otherwise the score "might have been doubled". Ottawa celebrated by hosting Dawson at a banquet. After this, the players took the Cup and attempted to
drop-kick it over the
Rideau Canal. The stunt was unsuccessful, as the Cup landed on the frozen ice and had to be retrieved the next day. Considering the lopsided score of the series, historians such as Paul Kitchen question why Dawson City was even granted a chance at the Cup. Dawson City had won no championships and did not belong to any recognized senior league. While team official Weldy Young knew Stanley Cup trustee P. D. Ross personally through their joint connection with the club, it may have been the political connections that Joe Boyle had with the government Interior Minister of the time,
Clifford Sifton, that got Dawson City the series. Future Ottawa Senators owner Frank Ahearn later stated that Weldy Young had asked Ahearn to ask the Ottawa players to "not rub it in" as Dawson City did not expect to win. Ahearn mentioned this to McGee, who had had a row with Boyle when both were members of the Ottawa Rowing Club, and had not forgotten it.
Stanley Cup Challenge win streak The Ottawas were the dominant team for three years: •
Defeated Montreal Victorias in two-game total goals series 1–1, 8–0 on March 7 and 10, 1903, to win CAHL championship, and the Stanley Cup. •
Defeated Rat Portage Thistles in two-game total goals series 6–2,4–2 (10–4) on March 12–14, 1903. •
Defeated Winnipeg Rowing Club in best-of three series 9–1, 2–6, 2–0 on December 30, 1903, and January 1–4, 1904. •
Defeated Toronto Marlboroughs in two-game total goals series 6–3, 11–2 (17–5) on February 23–25, 1904. •
Defeated Montreal Wanderers by forfeit, after tying Montreal 5–5 on March 2, 1904. The Wanderers refused to continue the series unless the tie was replayed, and forfeited as a result. •
Defeated Brandon, Manitoba in two-game total goals series 6–3, 9–3 (15–6) on March 9–11, 1904. •
Defeated Dawson City in best-of-three series 9–2, 23–2 (2–0) on January 13–16, 1905. •
Won 1905 FAHL championship with record of 7 wins, 1 loss. •
Defeated Rat Portage Thistles in best-of-three series 3–9, 4–2, 5–4 on March 7, 9 and 11, 1905. •
Defeated Queens University in two-game total goals series 16–7, 12–7 (28–14) on February 27–28, 1906. •
Defeated Smiths Falls, Ontario in two-game total goals series 6–5, 8–2 (14–7) on March 6–8, 1906. The end of the streak came in March 1906. Ottawa and the Montreal Wanderers tied for the ECAHA league lead in 1906, forcing a
playoff series for the league championship and the Cup. Montreal won the first game in Montreal by a score of 9–1. In the return match, Ottawa replaced their goaltender
Billy Hague and used goaltender
Percy LeSueur, formerly of Smiths Falls. In the return match in Ottawa, Ottawa overcame the eight-goal deficit, getting a 9–1 lead to tie the series by the midway point of the second half.
Harry Smith then scored to put Ottawa ahead, only to have the goal ruled offside. It was then that
Lester Patrick of the Wanderers took it upon himself, scoring two goals to win the series 12–10. This was Frank McGee's last game and he scored two goals. ;The players Besides McGee, future Hall of Fame players
Billy Gilmour, Percy LeSueur, Harvey Pulford, Alf Smith, Bouse Hutton and Harry Westwick played for the Ottawas. Alf Smith was also the coach. Other players of the 'Seven' included
Angus "Bones" Allen,
Dave Finnie, He was also the Ottawa Football Club's captain at the time. The funeral cortege was estimated at a half-mile in length, and it included Canadian prime minister
Wilfrid Laurier.
Early professional era (1907–1917) Transition to professional (1907–1910) Until the 1906–07 season, the players were not paid to play hockey, as the team was abiding by the principles of amateur sports. Ottawa HC had an advantage in attracting top players to its squad. The players could work for the government, and the work allowed the players to play for the team. Meanwhile, in the United States, the
International Professional Hockey League (IPHL) was paying players. In response to this, the ECAHA, while still having several purely amateur teams, started to allow professional players. The top teams could, therefore, compete for the top players and the gate attractions that they were. The only restriction was that the status of each and every player had to be publicized. The period saw the rivalry between the Senators and the Wanderers continue, and at times it was brutally contested. On January 12, 1907, a full-scale "donnybrook" took place between the two teams at a game in Montreal. Charles Spittal of Ottawa was described as "attempting to split Blachford's skull", Alf Smith hit Hod Stuart "across the temple with his stick, laying him out like a corpse" and Harry Smith cracked his stick across Ernie Johnson's face, breaking Johnson's nose. Discipline was first attempted by the league at a meeting on January 18, in which the Victorias proposed suspending Spittal and Alf Smith for the season, but this was voted down and the president of the league resigned. The police arrested Spittal, Alf and Harry Smith on their next visit to Montreal, leading to $20 fines for Spittal and Alf Smith and an acquittal for Harry Smith. The tactics did not work on the Wanderers; they won the return match in Ottawa in March and went undefeated for the season, leaving Ottawa in second place. However, it may have affected the Wanderers in another way: they lost the Stanley Cup a week after the donnybrook in a
Stanley Cup challenge series to the
Kenora Thistles. The
1907–08 season was a season of change for Ottawa. Harry Smith and Hamby Shore left to join Winnipeg. Ottawa hired several free agents, including
Marty Walsh,
Tommy Phillips and
Fred 'The Listowel Whirlwind' Taylor. Taylor was hired away from the IPHL for the 1907–08 season for a salary and a guaranteed federal civil service job. He was an immediate sensation and earned the new nickname of 'Cyclone' for his fast skating and end-to-end rushes, the nickname attributed to the Canadian governor-general
Earl Grey. Phillips was signed from Kenora to an even higher salary of $1,500 for the season, partially paid for by Ottawa sportsmen. Ottawa moved into their new arena, simply dubbed
The Arena, with seating for 4,500 and standing room for 2,500. With the free-agent signings and the new arena, Ottawa started selling season-tickets, the first of their kind, $3.75 for five games, eventually selling 2,400. The capacity was topped with a crowd of 7,100 in the home opener, attending a game against the Wanderers on January 11, which Ottawa won 12–2. However, Ottawa started the season with two losses out of three games and ended in second place behind the Wanderers again. Walsh tied for the scoring lead with 28 goals in 9 games (including seven in one match), while Phillips was close behind at 26 goals in 10 games. In 1908–09, the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association became completely professional and changed its name to the Eastern Canada Hockey Association (ECHA). This led to the retirement of several stars, including Ottawa's Harvey Pulford and Montreal's Russell Bowie, who insisted on keeping their amateur status. The Montreal Victorias and Montreal HC founded the
Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union, leaving only Ottawa, Quebec, Montreal Wanderers and
Montreal Shamrocks in the ECHA. It was another season of player turn-over for Ottawa. Besides Pulford, Ottawa lost Alf Smith, who formed a competing
Ottawa Senators professional team in the Federal League, and Tommy Phillips, who joined Edmonton. The club picked up Bruce Stuart from the Wanderers,
Fred Lake from Winnipeg and
Dubby Kerr from Toronto. This lineup had a successful season, winning 10 out of 12 games. Walsh led all scorers with 38 goals in 12 games, while Stuart had 22 and Kerr had 20. The season was clinched with a win against the Wanderers on March 3 in Ottawa, 8–3, as Ottawa won the league and Stanley Cup. Notable players of this time period include future Hall of Famers Percy LeSueur in goal, Dubby Kerr, Tommy Phillips, Harvey Pulford, Alf Smith, Bruce Stuart, Fred 'Cyclone' Taylor and Marty Walsh.
National Hockey Association (1910–1917) The 1909–10 hockey season saw major changes in the hockey world, as the ECHA organization split and created two organizations, the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) and the National Hockey Association (NHA). The CHA was formed to 'freeze out' the Wanderers, whose ownership change led the team to move to a smaller arena. At the same time, millionaire businessman J. Ambrose O'Brien, who wanted his Renfrew Creamery Kings to challenge for the Stanley Cup, saw his Renfrew application to join the CHA rejected. Together with the Wanderers, O'Brien instead decided to form the NHA, and founded the
Montreal Canadiens. In 1917, the NHA suspended its operation and its teams formed the
National Hockey League. Ottawa was one of the founders of the CHA and one of the teams that had rejected Renfrew. However, after a few poorly attended games showed that fans had no interest in the league, Ottawa and the Montreal Shamrocks abandoned the CHA to join the NHA. Ottawa, the defending Stanley Cup champion and Wanderers' rival, was readily accepted by the NHA. This enabled Ottawa to continue the rivalry with the Wanderers and take in the gate revenues those games provided. The Wanderers won the championship in 1910, and Ottawa won in 1911 and 1915. It is during the NHA period that the nickname "Ottawa Senators" came into common usage. Although there had been a competing Senators club in 1909, and there had been mention of the Senators nickname as early as 1901, the nickname was not adopted by the club. The official name of the club was the "Ottawa Hockey Club", owned by the "Ottawa Hockey Association". Star player Cyclone Taylor had defected to Renfrew, and despite a salary war with Renfrew, Ottawa managed to re-sign their other top players, Dubby Kerr, Fred Lake and Marty Walsh for the
1909–10 season. On Taylor's first return in February 1910, he made a promise to score a goal while making a rush backwards against Ottawa. This led to incredible interest, with over in attendance. A bet of was placed at the King Edward Hotel against him scoring at all. Ottawa won 8–5 (scoring 3 goals in overtime) and kept Taylor off the scoresheet. Later in the season at the return match in Renfrew, Taylor made good on his boast with a goal scored backwards, although it was simply a goal scored on a
backhand shot. This was the final game of the season, and Ottawa had no chance at the league title and did not appear to have put in an effort in a 17–2 loss, considered "the worst trimming ever handed to a team wearing the Ottawa colors". In
1910–11, the NHA contracted and imposed a salary cap, leading many of the Ottawa players to threaten to form a competing league. However, team owners controlled the rinks and the players accepted the new conditions. For Ottawa players, conditions did not deteriorate much as the club provided bonuses after the season. Ottawa gained revenge for the previous loss to Renfrew by defeating Renfrew 19–5. The team went 13–3 to win the NHA and inherit the Stanley Cup; Marty Walsh and Dubby Kerr led the goal scoring with 37 and 32 goals in 16 games. After the season Ottawa played two challenges, against
Galt, winning 7–4, and against
Port Arthur, winning 13–4. In the Port Arthur game, Marty Walsh came close to matching Frank McGee's total, scoring ten goals. 1910–11 was the debut season of right wing
Jack Darragh who scored 18 goals in 16 games. The 1911–12 through 1913–14 seasons saw a decline for both Ottawa and the Wanderers. After the withdrawal of O'Brien's Renfrew team in 1911, the two clubs fought over the rights to Cyclone Taylor, who wanted to return to Ottawa, where his fiancé lived and he still had a government job. The NHA had given the Wanderers the rights to Taylor in a dispersal of the Renfrew players. Trade talks were unfruitful. Ottawa, insistent in their claim for Taylor, played him in one game for Ottawa against the Wanderers. The Senators won the game; however, Taylor was ineffectual. The move backfired on the Senators, as the league ruled that the game could not stand and would have to be replayed. The Senators lost the replay and it was the difference in the league championship, as the defending champion Senators placed second by one game behind Quebec. Quebec's
Bulldogs won the only two Stanley Cup championships in the club's history that season and the next, and the
Toronto Blueshirts won in 1914. Taylor did not play in the NHA again, as he joined Vancouver in the off-season. The Senators finished fifth in
1912–13 and fourth in 1913–14. 1912–13 saw the debut of right wing
Punch Broadbent, who scored 20 goals in 20 games. In
1914–15, both Ottawa and the Wanderers bounced back to the top of the league, tying each other for the NHA season title. This was also the season that future Hall of Famer
Clint Benedict became the Senators' top goaltender, taking over from Percy LeSueur. Former Wanderer
Art Ross joined the Senators and helped Ottawa win in a two-game playoff, 4–1. The Senators then played in the first inter-league Stanley Cup Final playoff series with the
Vancouver Millionaires of the
Pacific Coast (PCHA) league. Cyclone Taylor, now of the Millionaires, haunted his old team, scoring six goals in three games as Ottawa lost three straight in Vancouver. Future Senator centreman
Frank Nighbor played in this series for Vancouver and scored five goals. In
1915–16, the Senators placed second to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. Punch Broadbent left the team to fight in World War I, while Frank Nighbor joined the Senators in his place and became the team's leading scorer. Nighbor had been signed away from Vancouver for the salary of $1,500, making him the highest-paid player on the club, ahead of Art Ross and Eddie Gerard. Benedict led the league as the top goaltender for the first time. With the wartime shortage of players, Rat Westwick and Billy Gilmour of 'Silver Seven' days attempted comebacks with the club but both played only two games before retiring for good. In the off-season, Ottawa's president Llewellyn Bate proposed to suspend the team's operations until the end of the war. Gate receipts had declined 17 percent. The other NHA owners refused to suspend the league. Rather than simply cease operations, Bate and the other directors of the team turned it over to
Ted Dey, owner of the Arena. Dey cut player salaries and let players go, including Art Ross to the Wanderers. Dey also fired manager Alf Smith, saving on his $750 salary. In
1916–17, the last season of the NHA, Ottawa won the second half of the split schedule. An Army team, the
Toronto 228th Battalion, composed of enlisted professional players, joined the league before leaving for war after the first half-season. When the Battalion left, the other Toronto team, the Blueshirts was suspended by the league and its players dispersed including
Corb Denneny, brother of
Cy Denneny, who joined the Senators. Future Hall of Famer Cy had been picked up in a trade with Toronto earlier that season and he would be a member of the Senators until 1928. Benedict was the NHA's top goaltender once again, and Nighbor tied for the scoring lead with 41 goals in 19 games. As second-half winners, the Senators played off in a series with the Canadiens, the first-half winners. The Senators ended their play in the NHA by losing a two-game total goals playoff series to the Canadiens, who eventually lost to Seattle in the Stanley Cup Final. This season saw the final decline of Ottawa's old rivals, the Wanderers, who finished at the bottom of the standings. The next year, the Wanderers played only four games in the NHL, winning only one before folding the franchise after their home arena burned down. While World War I affected all NHA teams, Ottawa was able to retain players and be competitive. The club finished no worse than second during the wartime seasons of 1914–15 to 1917–18.
Stanley Cup champions in 1906 and 1910: Historians' debate Due to the 'challenge' format of Stanley Cup play before 1915, there is often confusion about how many Stanley Cup championships the Senators should be given credit for: nine, ten or eleven. The Senators were Stanley Cup champions at the end of nine hockey seasons without dispute. In another two seasons, 1905–06 and 1909–10, the Senators won Stanley Cup challenges but were not champions at the end of the season. The
Hockey Hall of Fame and the National Hockey League agree that the Senators of 1906 were champions but disagree on whether the Senators were champions in 1910. In both seasons, the Senators were the undisputed defending champions, and during that year's hockey season, the Senators won Stanley Cup challenges. However, by the end of both hockey seasons, they were no longer holders of the Stanley Cup. In 1906, Ottawa defeated OHA champions Queen's University and FAHL champions
Smiths Falls in Stanley Cup challenges. However, Ottawa tied the Montreal Wanderers for the ECAHA regular season championship. To decide the ECAHA championship and the Stanley Cup, the Senators played a two-game total goals series against the Wanderers in March 1906 and lost. The 1906 hockey season ended with the Wanderers as the Stanley Cup champions. The Hockey Hall of Fame recognizes both Ottawa and the Wanderers as champions for that year, as does the NHL. In January 1910, Ottawa defeated Galt, champions of the
OPHL, during the
CHA regular season, as well as
Edmonton of the
AAHA during the NHA regular season (the Senators switched leagues in-between). At the end of the season, Ottawa gave up the Cup to the Montreal Wanderers, regular-season champions of the new NHA league. Unlike the 1906 case, the Hockey Hall of Fame does not recognize the Senators as champions for January 1910, This changed in March 2003, when the team raised banners for the 1906 and 1910 years to join the other nine banners hanging at the
Corel Centre. The club and the NHL now list the original Senators as 11-time winners.) as players protested that their contracts were for 20 games, while the season schedule was for 24. Enough players were appeased that the game started, 15 minutes late, while two players Hamby Shore and Jack Darragh, stayed in the dressing room while negotiations went on. The Senators lost their home opener 7–4. The Senators lost their previous top rival, the Wanderers, after five games. The team struggled and finished in third place after the first half of the season. The club made player changes in the second half, getting
Horace Merrill out of retirement and releasing
Dave Ritchie. It was Shore's last season as he would die of pneumonia in October 1918. Shore's last career game was in the third-last game of the season and he was sat out for the last two games. In the end, the team placed second in the second half and missed the playoffs. Cy Denneny led the team, coming second overall in scoring in the league with 36 goals in 20 games. Prior to the 1918–19 season, ownership of the Senators changed. While Ted Dey negotiated with
Percy Quinn for a lease for The Arena, Dey was also negotiating with Rosenthal over the lease, causing Rosenthal to seriously consider moving the team from The Arena back to
Aberdeen Pavilion. However, it turned out that Dey was engineering a takeover of the club and Rosenthal ended up selling his share of the club to Dey, making Dey the majority owner in both the Arena and the hockey club. Rosenthal, a prominent local jeweller, had been involved with the club since 1903. Dey's machinations also helped the NHL in its continuing fight against Blueshirts owner Livingstone. The Senators instigated an agreement with the other NHL clubs, binding them to the NHL for the next five years and locking out any rival league from their arenas. In
1918–19, the Senators won the second half of the split schedule. Clint Benedict had the top goalkeeper average, and Cy Denneny and Frank Nighbor placed third and fourth in scoring with 18 and 17 goals in 18 games, respectively. The schedule was abbreviated by the
Toronto Arenas club suspending operations, so the Senators and Canadiens played off in the first best-of-seven series. Due to a family bereavement, Ottawa was without star centre Frank Nighbor for the first three games and lost all three. Ottawa asked to use Corb Denneny of Toronto, but the Canadiens turned down the request. Nighbor returned for the fourth game in Ottawa, which Ottawa won 6–3. The series ended in five games, as the Canadiens won the final match 4–2 to win the series. The Stanley Cup Final between Montreal and Seattle was left undecided, as
an influenza outbreak suspended the final.
The 'Super Six' (1920–1927)