A Message from the Staff
Silver Seven is taking a brief pause.
These are strange times to be writing for an Ottawa Senators blog, for many reasons. The 2019-20 season is currently on hold due to a global pandemic that has been raging for over three months. More recently, the world’s attention has turned to the massive protests against police brutality and systemic anti-Black racism that are going on principally in the United States. In the six years that I have been writing for this site, blogging about the Sens has never felt less important than it does right now.
In light of everything that is taking place, we have decided as a staff to hit the pause button on our regularly-scheduled articles while we take stock of where we stand, and how best to move forward. It just doesn’t feel right to publish content that isn’t in some way addressing the ongoing crisis. Sports are entertainment, but they also exist within the framework of our broader society. The fact that even the notoriously circumspect Jonathan Toews has been moved to share his thoughts on the events unfolding tells us that hockey has a role to play in shaping the conversation and advancing the cause of racial justice.
What does this mean for the site? Our usual content that was slated for today; a longform piece, some draft and prospect coverage, and an episode of the Cost Per Pointcast; will be re-scheduled and run at a later time. I can’t commit to an exact date when we will be caught up, but there is no plan to take an extended hiatus. We will have a Five Thoughts for Friday piece that will touch on the intersection between hockey and race that I’m hoping will help to shape our future coverage.
Part of our mission as a site is to write about hockey from an inclusive, progressive angle. Right now that means a brief step back while we consider how we can continue to deliver the comprehensive Sens coverage you have all come to expect while supporting the black members of the hockey community and society writ large. We all have a part to play to make this world a better place, and an Ottawa Senators fan blog is no different.
-nkb and the Silver Seven Staff