Ottawa Senators (original)

The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario,See Farrell (1899). Mr. Farrell states that "It is the oldest club in Ontario, and was in existence in the days of the challenge system, having played in Montreal during the carnivals." This refers to the Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournaments of 1883 and 1884. a founding member of the National Hockey League (NHL) and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934. The club, which was officially the Ottawa Hockey Club (Ottawa HC), was known by several nicknames, including the Generals in the 1890s, the Silver Seven from 1903 to 1907 and the Senators dating from 1908.The first mention of 'Senators' as a nickname was in 1901, in the Ottawa Journal. The club continued to be known as the Ottawa Hockey Club. In 1909, a separate Ottawa Senators pro team existed in the Federal League. Ottawa newspapers referred to that club as the Senators, and the Ottawa HC as 'Ottawa' or 'Ottawa Pro Hockey Club'. The Globe first mentions the Senators in the article entitled 'Quebec defeated Ottawa' on December 30, 1912.
Generally acknowledged by hockey historians as one of the greatest teams of the early days of the sport, the club won numerous championships, starting with the 1891 to 1893 Ontario championships. Ottawa HC played in the first season during which the Stanley Cup was challenged in 1893, and first won the Cup in 1903, holding the championship until 1906 (the Silver Seven years). The club repeated its success in the 1920s, winning the Stanley Cup in 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927 (the Super Six years). In total, the club won the Stanley Cup eleven times, including challenges during two years it did not win the Cup for the season. In 1950, Canadian sports editors selected the Ottawa HC/Senators as Canada's greatest team in the first half of the 20th century.
The club was one of the first organized clubs in the early days of the sport of ice hockey, playing in the Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournaments in the early 1880s and founding the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada and the Ontario Hockey Association. Along with the rise of professionalism in ice hockey in the first decade of the 1900s, the club changed to a professional team and were founding members of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and its successor, the National Hockey League. The club competed in the NHL until the 1933–34 season, when it relocated the NHL franchise to St. Louis, Missouri due to financial difficulties to become the St. Louis Eagles. The organization continued the Senators as an amateur, and later semi-professional, team in Quebec senior men's leagues until 1954.
==Team Photos==
Ottawa-Hockey-Club-1883-84.jpg|The club in 1883-84.
Ottawa Hockey Club 1885.jpg|The club in 1885.
OttawaHockeyClub1891.jpg|The club in 1891.
Ottawa hockey club 1895.jpeg|The club in 1895.
Ottawa_Hockey_Club_1896-1987.png|The club in 1897.
Ottawa HC 1901 champions pic.jpg|The club in 1901.
Silver7.jpg|The club in 1905.
Ottawa-Hockey-Club-1909.jpg|The club in 1909.
Ottawa_Hockey_Team,_NH_Association_World_Champions_and_Stanley_Cup_Holders,_1911_(HS85-10-23753).jpg|The club in 1911.
Ottawa_Senators,_1914-1915.jpg|The club in 1915.
==References==
Category:Ice hockey teams in Canada