The Florida Panthers announced a crowd of 7,311 fans for their Monday night loss to the Ottawa Senators. It’s a pathetically sparse crowd, lower than some college hockey games. It unfortunately comes during a perfect storm of negative attention for that sea of empty seats:

-- It was a game against a visiting Canadian franchise, which meant a slew of press box tweets that were circulated by their Canadian followers who gleefully chronicle any struggling American NHL city’s gate problems.

-- It comes on the heels of a summer of relocation and expansion talk....

-- Now that the Coyotes have actual owners, someone else needs to be the belle of the Relocation Bait ball.