The Bank Atlantic Center, half-empty, during a 2009 contest with the hometown Florida Panthers taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
As fans filed through the doors of Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, they were greeted with blood red towels draped upon their seats. Splashed across the towels was the new rebranded team motto, “We See Red,” and as fans took their seats they waited. They waited for their Florida Panthers to take the ice for their first playoff appearance in over a decade, they waited for a head-to-head with New Jersey Devils, and they waited to roar in elation – a roar that was missing for so many years and desperate to return. The series would go seven grueling games and would end on an Adam Henrique goal in overtime. As the Panthers left the ice for the final time in 2011-12, their fans that had waited so long for any reason to cheer left them with a raucous ovation. Panthers fans had waited for rebirth, and now, with an NHL lockout, they wait again.
Jared P.D. Clinton 