What was the inspiration for the Ottawa Silver Seven? What is a Silver Seven?

Question

Oh, so there were seven players back in the day? I just figured that out, so I asked a question about that seventh position.

So I guess they meant that they were the elite seven, the Silver Seven.

Answer 1

In addition to the above poster

Back then, teams only had 7 players, so every player played all 60 minutes

Answer 2

If they never left the ice surface does that mean the phrase 'Going behind the net' had a different meaning back then?

Answer 3

Here I found this at wikipedia...is this what you were looking for?

[edit] Silver Seven Era 1903-1906
In March 1903, Ottawa would start a period where they would hold the Stanley Cup and defeat all challengers until 1906. For that first win, the team's players were paid "under the table" with silver nuggets, since the players were technically amateurs. [1] After this, the team would gain the nickname of the Silver Seven. (In those days, hockey teams iced seven men -- a goaltender, three forwards, two defencemen and a rover).

This era started with the arrival of Frank McGee and ended with his retirement. Having lost an eye in local amateur hockey, he was persuaded, despite the threat of permanent blindness to join the Senators. Only 5'6" tall, and the youngest player on the team, he would go on to score 135 goals in 45 games. In the 1905 challenge against the Dawson City Nuggets, he would famously score 14 goals in a 23-2 shellacking. He retired in 1906 at the age of 23.

Notable players of this era also included Percy LeSueur, Harvey Pulford, Rat Westwick and Alf Smith.

The streak would start with the 1903 CAHL season, where Ottawa and Montreal Victorias would dominate, both finishing with 6-2 records. The top scorer was the Victorias' Russell Bowie who scored 7 goals in one game and 6 in another, and McGee who would have 5 goals as his top performance. The two would then face off in a two-game total goals series to decide the league championship and inherit the Stanley Cup. In the first game, played in Montreal on slushy ice making it a desperate struggle to score and ended 1-1. The return match in Ottawa, witnessed by 3000 fans, was on ice coated with an inch of water. The conditions did not hinder Ottawa as they won 8-0 with McGee scoring 3 and the other 5 shared among the three Gilmours Dave (2), Suddy (2) and Bill (1) to win their first Cup.

Answer 4

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