The Universal Cynic

Yesterday, the Ottawa Senators announced that there were fewer than 4,500 tickets available for tonight's game vs. Carolina. Yes, you read that number correctly.

Naturally, the excuses started rolling in. "It's a mid-week game!" Uh, Thursday games have been commonplace in Ottawa for years, and people have continued to show up. "It's early in the season!" If you are part of the majority of fans who bitched and moaned about the lack of all hockey all summer, you would think you'd be getting your ass out there every chance you got. "It's Carolina!" You claim to be Senators fans, yes? Go and see your home team. "They're 0-2-1!" Sigh. And you get pissed off when the critics call you "fair-weather." Next?

The reality is the Senators have always relied on walk-up business. The days of the 12,000+ season ticketholder fan base, post-Cup run, was short-lived and it won't be returning any time soon. Based on the way the year has opened in Ottawa, the Senators better come with some heavy promotional gimmicks, because this isn't going to be pretty - especially when the evidence appears on a national broadcast via TSN tonight.

More later.