The Ottawa Senators are in Florida to take on the Panthers on Monday night and what can only be described as a small gathering showed up to watch them, as captured in the above photo from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun just before the drop of the puck.

It turned out to be the smallest crowd in franchise history with an announced attendance of just 7,311.

Bad attendance seems like it's going to be a reoccurring thing when it comes to Panthers games this season, especially after they reduced the capacity of their building by covering up sections of the upper deck and are coming off a home-opener that featured the smallest opening night crowd in the history of the franchise.

According to Panthers beat writer George Richards, the record for smallest crowd in franchise history before Monday was 10,063 back in October of 2007.

A game like this is pretty much the worst-case scenario for the Panthers.

Not only is it an early season weeknight game for a team that missed the playoffs last season, but when you combine it with an opponent that generates as little excitement as the Ottawa Senators do -- and a team that has no real road following outside of Ontario to speak of -- and, well, that's when you're going to have nights like this...