As I said last season, have a little pity for tonight’s visiting Florida Panthers and their relatively small contingent of loyal fans. In 22 seasons of NHL play, Florida has qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs only five times and remains at or near the bottom of league attendance figures despite playing in a beautiful, fan-friendly, well-staffed arena. This season the Panthers are ranked 27th in NHL attendance with an average of 14,533 in 27 home games (85% of capacity), ahead of only Arizona (13,104), the Islanders (12,919) and Carolina (12,002).
At this writing, Florida is seven games over .