The future of women’s hockey at Lansdowne — and perhaps in Ottawa — became the flashpoint of the Lansdowne 2.0 public forum at city hall, after Jayna Hefford and Amy Scheer, executive vice-presidents of hockey and business operations for the PWHL, told councillors that the proposed arena is simply too small to sustain the Ottawa Charge’s momentum.

That shouldn’t have come as news to the mayor and 11 councillors who compose the Finance and Corporate Services committee, the body charged with listening to the 88 delegates registered to speak. The new arena, after all, will hold about 2,000 fewer fans than the current one, fewer than the team averaged at home games last season. Meanwhile, the league has been full-throated in its opposition to the plan since the city clumsily dropped the l

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