Roll Call and Community Standards: 2015 Edition!

It's New Year's Day and once again we here at Silver Seven are (re)introducing ourselves and reminding each other what our community is all about!

Silver Seven is a community built on respect. Our community guidelines reflect this:

"Post your opinions. Disagree with others. Be respectful of others, even if you disagree with them. Everything done on this site must be done in a respectful manner."

Silver Seven is a safe space for Sens fans to talk, explore, and share our passion for this team. Silver Seven is a place where Sens fans can have fun and share some laughs. Our community is different; ideas and opinions are valued even when disagreed with and we foster an atmosphere of acceptance.

We (re)introduce ourselves below, but we'd love to hear from you! Whether you've commented for a long time or would be part of a great delurking, we invite you to share a bit more about yourself! Use this template, or any you feel works for you!

Welcome to all new voices!

First Name: Only if you want to!

Location: We'd love to know where you are, especially if you are outside Ottawa like many of us!

Why did you become a Sens fan?

Favourite S7 feature: Ups and Downs, Nuggets, Recaps, Prospect Reports, Five Thoughts and many more! Name your favourites!

What's on your pizza?

Best thing to happen to you in 2014:

Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators:

The Silver Seven Staff

Michaela (Writer)

Location: Ottawa
Why did you become a Sens fan? I grew up in the Ottawa Valley, so it just happened naturally. Fortunately, I am too young to remember a time before the Sens came to town, so I was never forced to cheer for the other teams close-by!
Favourite S7 feature: In case you guys haven't noticed, I love writing (and reading) the weekly Five Thoughts feature. Even in the off-season, it seems like there is always so much to talk about when you summarize the news from a week in the NHL. I like seeing what others found interesting this week, and sharing what mattered to me.
What's on your pizza? Anything but pineapple. Pineapple on pizza is wrong.
Best thing to happen to you in 2014: I bought a house, and became a writer at Silver Seven (which was pretty great too!)
Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: Find a home for Colin Greening.

Adnan (Editor)

Location: the true capital of Canada: the greater Toronto area.
Why did you become a Sens fan? I suppose it is my contrarian nature kicking in. But Martin Havlat is likely the biggest reason.
Favourite S7 feature: Ups and downs probably.
What's on your pizza? Chicken, green peppers and tomatoes. Sometimes onions too. Surprisingly I rarely get pineapple on pizza.
Best thing to happen to you in 2014: David Moyes getting sacked made me pretty happy I suppose.
Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: trade Chris Phillips for the best offer and do it before he breaks Alfie's record for games as a Senator.

Peter (Editor, Founder)

Location: The truer capital of Canada, the City of Ottawa.

Why did you become a Sens fan? It's tough to say why... I didn't really follow hockey before the Sens were established, but then they started playing and I started following hockey and I became a Sens fan.

Favourite S7 feature: Tough call... I like writing about hockey books, but I think I most enjoy game threads (although I don't participate in them as often as I'd like to).

What's on your pizza? Usually bacon and pepperoni, although on homemade pizza the sky is the limit.

Best thing to happen to you in 2014? My son Benjamin was born!

Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: Increase the compete level, play harder, give it 110%, get stick on puck, speed through the neutral zone, yadda yadda yadda

Ary (Writer)

Location: East of the GTA; Whitby, Ontario. Home of Bob McKenzie (and noted Sens killer, Joe Nieuwendyk, among others).

Why did I become a Sens fan? Well... I actually started off as a Leafs fan *ducks* but granted, it's because every person on my street in my childhood neighbourhood were Leafs fans. In the midst of the Battle of Ontario (2001ish?), my best friend was tired of everyone making fun of the Sens so he converted and I followed. We were 8 at the time. Living in Toronto has definitely led to me receiving a lot of scorn, but I'm happy with the decision ahahaha.

Favourite S7 feature: the Nuggets because... well... I'm kidding. Being the Nuggets collector, I get to read everything so I like them all for various reasons. Instead, I'm going to say that my favourite feature of S7 as a Sens blog is the array of writers and perspectives that we bring when talking about a Sens-related issue. It's always interesting and fun to see how we look at the same bit of news or analyze things in different ways.

What's on your pizza? Pepperoni, Mushrooms, Black Olives, Garlic aioli!

Best thing to happen to you in 2014: It's been a busy year! I'm excited that I got a chance to talk about the Sens with such a big community! Also excited on a more personal level to help inform higher education policy on mental health strategy for students.

New Year's resolutions for the Senators: stability, hopefully in monetary terms, management, and coaching. Find capable partner for Erik Karlsson.

Ross (Editor)

Location: Calgary
Why did you become a Sens fan? My family moved to Ottawa when I was two, and I'm even younger than Michaela, so I've cheered for the Sens as long as I can remember knowing what hockey was. I've stuck with them through five years of university in Waterloo, smack-dab in the middle of Leafs country, and now a move to Alberta.
Favourite S7 feature: I enjoy the game recaps a lot, because you get a bit of each writer's personality showing through in something that should be pretty standard. My biggest challenge in writing them is trying to keep my word count below 1500.
What's on your pizza? Everything. I have not encountered a pizza topping I didn't like. The more toppings, the better in my opinion. Pizzas with titles like "The Works" or "Fully Loaded" draw me in like nothing else.
Best thing to happen to you in 2014: Just started my Master's in Calgary! Or maybe I should say finishing my undergrad at Waterloo.
Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: Get Marc Methot healthy.

Mrs. O (Writer)

Location: Ottawa, mostly lurking around CTC.
Why did you become a Sens fan? Honestly, it's been so long, I can't pinpoint one reason. My grandfather played hockey, so that's where my hockey love blossomed. I think my great aunt introduced me to the Senators though. She's pretty awesome. She also took me to my first game.
Favourite S7 feature: Hmm...I don't know. I like most of them. I like Five Thoughts and Ups and Downs a lot.
What's on your pizza? Pepperoni (I prefer spicy). Pep and cheese is my favesies, but I also love pizzas that include olives, pineapple, and spicy chicken.
Best thing to happen to you in 2014: I finished my master's degree. Hopefully my thesis helps to add to what we know about coaching athletes with disabilities.
Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: Spending more wisely if we're sticking to this budget - no more bad contracts. Draft well. Sign some solid free agents. Make a quantity for quality trade. Are these things too much to ask?

Nate (nkb) (Writer)

Location: Toronto, fighting off smug Leafs fans.
Why did you become a Sens fan? When I was very young, Ottawa didn't have a team and so I have memories of watching Habs games with my father in the late 80's and into the early 90's. It wasn't until later in my life, after we returned from a time living overseas, that I became a Sens fan. I don't have a specific moment in mind, more of a general feeling of really loving hockey and wanting to cheer for "the good guys".
Favourite S7 feature: My favourite feature to write is Five Thoughts since it allows me the freedom to explore ideas while still imposing some desperately needed structure.
What's on your pizza? If it's a really, really good pizza from a Neapolitan spot I'll usually just go Margarita. If we're having generic delivery, I favour spicy sausage, banana peppers and mushrooms.
Best thing to happen to you in 2014: It's a bit cheesy, but honestly it's probably that I started writing for this site. I haven't contributed as much as I'd like, work and life just keep getting in the way, but it's been a lot of fun to put my thoughts into writing. This is a great community, I'm honoured to contribute to the conversation.
Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but barring a miracle the Sens aren't going to make the play-offs this year; my resolution is for management to recognize that and not make a panic trade that improves the short term picture at the expense of the long-term.

Ian (Prospect Writer)

Location: Kingston

Why did you become a Sens fan? Growing up in Ottawa, I wasn't old enough to remember the terrible early days from 92-95 which made it pretty easy to latch on to the hometown team.

Favourite S7 feature: Prospect updates! (very biased opinion) I'm actually a big fan of Five Thoughts.

What's on your pizza? Pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom

Best thing to happen to you in 2014: Joined the S7S team!

Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: Continue trying to balance the equation: Players - Money + "x" = Stanley Cup. I'm hoping for a more consistent team in 2015, the Sens have shown some glimmers of hope and looked absolutely terrible other times.

Amelia (Managing Editor)

Location: Newmarket

Why did you become a Sens fan? Started as a teen living in the GTA during the Battle of Ontario, became a full commitment when I moved to Ottawa in 2003.

Favourite S7 feature: Like Five Thoughts a lot, Ups and Downs (as long as I didn't have to write them)

What's on your pizza: Meat

Best thing to happen to you in 2014: things with my paintings/drawings started to takeoff, got to go on vacation to England/present a paper at the British Library

Your New Year's resolutions for the Senators: Erik Karlsson gets a hat trick