Silver Seven Get To Know You

At the beginning of the season, it's nice to get to know everyone in the community. We've answered four questions as a staff:
1. How did you become a Sens fan?
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
We hope everyone else will join in the comments!

Brad T

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
Simply put, I'm local and had no firm hockey loyalties when the franchise was awarded.
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
Going way off the board with this one and... just kidding, it's Alfie.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
I can't remember exactly what it was because it was 13(ish) years ago, but I was just hungry for more Sens coverage (and discussion)
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
Is it boring to say stable goaltending? I feel like it is, but the less boring things I'm looking forward to are things we haven't been missing so goaltending gets to be at the top the list.

Shaan Malik

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
I had close family friends cheering for the Leafs and Habs, so things were dangerous for a while. Fortunately, the idea of having a local team in the Stanley Cup Final was more than enough for me to jump on board full-time in 2007 at a time when I didn't really have a favourite team. We were out of town that year but upon returning to Ottawa, the 2007-08 season was the beginning of my attempt to watch every Sens game from that point on.
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
There wasn't one single player that got me to start watching the Sens, but as I began witnessing those iconic moments a few names began to stick out in my mind. Erik Karlsson and Daniel Alfredsson are high on my list as is the case for most people, but the most fun I've ever had watching a hockey game was the 6-1 win over Montreal. Jean-Gabriel Pageau takes the silver medal for this reason, but Craig Anderson, perhaps the most underrated goaltender of a decade, starred in far too many of my happy memories to justify picking anyone else for my all-time favourite.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
Tennis Camp, Bobby Kelly, the Ups and Downs, Mark Borowiecki on the first forward line, and finally a hot take on the Erik Karlsson trade that probably had people suspecting that I can travel through time.
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
Some saves.

Beata

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
My mom is a huge hockey fan, so I've been watching hockey since day 1. She's a Canucks fan, but because I grew up in Ottawa, it was much easier to watch the Sens, and my whole family got into the team, especially in 2007.
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
Alfie will always have a special place in my heart, obviously, but honestly my all-time favourite is probably Erik Karlsson. I got really into the Sens right at the start of his career, so I really felt like I followed his whole journey with the Sens. I still miss him.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
In 2013 none of my friends were into hockey so I went online to find places to talk about the Sens! I was an avid reader of the site for years after that, and was hanging out in the comments even before I got on social media.
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
Wins in the month of November. Please. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't happen.

Ary

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
My best friend and I grew up in Pickering, ON -- a suburb just to the east of Toronto. We were in elementary school during the initial Battle of Ontario rivalries, and everyone on our street (and school) were Leafs fans. He decided to support Ottawa first and I tagged along - it was funner to be different, and I genuinely enjoyed watching the skill on display of those early 00s Sens teams. Now, I think I'm probably just as much of a Leafs hater than I am a Sens fan – I find joy in both!
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
Erik Karlsson, who, without question, is the most skilled player to ever play hockey in our nation's capital. For a solid number of years, Sens fans could proudly stake a claim to having the most talented defenceman in the NHL playing for their team every night.
When I was younger, my favourite player was Martin Havlat. His speed, shot, and feistiness were fun to watch. Seeing Havlat, Hossa, and Chara leave in succession was tough on my heart.
Generally, I have a soft spot for reliable middle-six forwards and second-pair defenders, so I routinely get pissed when I think the team has made shitty attempts at improving their depth.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
I think I got Twitter pretty early (2010) and started following many of the writers on there. I admired storytelling of Andrew L, the level-headedness of Peter Raaymakers, and the satire of Ryan Classic. I first wrote a fanpost on some data that Josh Weissbock, who has been employed by Florida and Columbus, published on the AHL, and Andrew liked how I illuminated different insights on the team's prospects. That's been my niche ever since.
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
Continuing to watch Tim Stützle night-in, night-out.

Owen Welch

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
I was born in the Ottawa suburbs and I've lived in the region my whole life. As much as we all joke about suffering the Senators, I feel very privileged to have experienced NHL hockey in my neck of the woods since I was a little kid.
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
I could probably give a different answer for every day of the week but for the sake of conciseness I'll go with Craig Anderson. He was somehow the second or third most valuable player in franchise history and yet always seemed underappreciated.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
I came online during the Hamburglar spring in 2015. It was an electric time to be a Sens fan a great time to stumble upon independent Sens coverage. It was like the first time I heard Minor Threat—I could never go back.
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
I don't quite now how to put it into words but 'the culture.' The stability from ownership down, having Ian Mendes in the mix, knowing the game in and of itself will make the narrative--it just seems so idyllic.

Trevor Shackles

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
There is truly no great answer for this, considering I grew up in Richmond, BC and still live in Vancouver. The best answer I have is that I liked seeing them on TV as a toddler and wanted to get their hat. My earliest hockey memories are watching their games, and by the time I was 9, I was following every game (as best I could, sometimes resorting to online radio). They were incredibly good until I was 11, and at that point, it would've felt wrong to be so invested with a team to then just switch allegiances. I've always been a loyal fan, even as a kid.
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
Jason Spezza was my first so I have to stick with him. I loved watching him dangle around players and always felt he got a raw deal from too many fans in Ottawa.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
I think I found it in 2012 when I first started reading NHL and MLB blogs. I also read OverTheMonster, the Red Sox SB Nation site, but I'm not sure if that came before or after Silver Seven. I would've followed them on Twitter too, so it might have been through that.
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
Having an actual goaltender. Linus Ullmark is the real deal, and I can't wait to see him stabilize the Senators.

Ross Arnold

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
My family moved to Ottawa in 1993, when I was still in diapers. My parents kind of decided on my behalf that I was going to be a Sens fan. I definitely embraced it though. As I tell my non-sports-fan friends who ask why I don't change teams when mine's bad, you don't realize you're selling your soul when you pick a team to cheer for. You decide for one reason or another, and then you owe them your allegiance until you die.
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
I was a big fan of Ron Tugnutt as a child, and I've admitted to crying when he was traded. He's probably still #1, because as a child you don't understand the nuances of sport, whereas I was an adult when Alfie left or Karlsson was traded. Tugnutt will always be a pure, uncomplicated favourite.
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
I remember the first article I ever read on this site. I'd gone to Kitchener-Waterloo for university, and was adjusting to being in the heart of Leafs country after growing up in Ottawa. I was working a typical coop job where the company had 5 weeks of work for me and then didn't know what to do with me for the rest of my time, so I was spending a lot of time on Google, and I stumbled across this Peter Raaymakers classic 'enhance the experience of hockey' piece suggesting that the NHL introduce a bubble-top to rinks to make hockey more exciting and safer for fans. From there, I became an avid reader, then commenter, then FanPoster, and became a writer back in 2014. That was 10 years ago. That feels like a long time ago now.
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
People have said some good ideas, so I'm gonna add the possibility of being the NHL's heels. Remember how Morgan Rielly got suspended because he was so pissed off at Ridly Greig's unnecessary (but also wholly necessary) slapshot on an empty net? I want the Sens to draw that kind of ire from every team on every night.

NKB

1. How did you become a Sens fan?
I've told this story a couple of different times over the years now, but I'm old enough that the Ottawa Senators weren't a team when I was first getting into hockey. In fact, I was a Montreal Canadiens fan the first year the Sens came to town, and I have memories of watching the Habs win the Cup. There are pictures of me in Canadiens jerseys growing up, I loved The Hockey Sweater, and on my Novice Minor Hockey Player Card I listed "Rocket" Richard as my all-time favourite player. Then we lived overseas for several years, I didn't really follow the NHL, and when I came back the Sens were no longer truly terrible. I adored hockey, was playing it all the time, and the Sens made a dramatic push to their first play-offs appearance in '97. The rest, as they say, is history. 
2. Who's your all-time favourite Senator?
Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, and Marian Hossa all hold a special place in my heart. That all three were traded in their primes stings, and the Hossa deal, in particular, has always loomed large in my mind as one of the all-time "What Ifs". 
3. How did you first find Silver Seven?
In 2012, when the Sens were battling the Rangers in the play-offs, I was looking for a place to read, and talk about, the team. Living in Toronto, it wasn't as simple as just ambling up the bar, or chatting up a co-worker. Silver Seven was a great community, and for two years I was a fairly avid commenter before joining the staff in 2014. I've been writing for the site ever since. 
4. What are you most looking forward to this season?
I agree with several of my colleagues that good goaltending will greatly improve my experience of following this team but I'm also (perhaps unreasonably) optimistic we are going to see a hugely impactful Thomas Chabot. If he's healthy, he's an absolute crusher and I think that with Sanderson-Zub slated to take a lot of the top matchups that Chabot is going to feast. It'll be a lot of fun.