LOS ANGELES — Gone were the four-goal outbursts and menacing power plays, but remaining was the winless record for the Kings, who stumbled against the Florida Panthers, 2-1, on Tuesday night in their home opener at Crypto.com Arena.
They went 0 for 5 on the power play and squeezed out just one goal against an undermanned and road-weary Florida club. The Panthers were finishing their four-game road trip without captain Aleksander Barkov, former No. 1 overall draft pick Aaron Ekblad and, by the end of the night, veteran winger Brad Marchand.
More positively, the Kings were 6 for 6 on the penalty kill and were given a chance by their goaltender, in stark contrast to their first two games of the season.
Alex Laferriere got the scoring going, but no other King followed his lead. Darcy Kuemper had solid numbers, stopping 26 shots, but saw two goals go through him in the loss.
Seth Jones and Matthew Tkachuk each had a goal for Florida. Jacob Markström made 19 saves.
In the final 20 minutes, the Kings threatened multiple times while shorthanded but could not capitalize before giving up the go-ahead goal to Tkachuk and fizzling out with Kuemper pulled from his net.
Tkachuk collected a turnover in the neutral zone and passed the puck ahead to Sam Bennett. A back-checking Artemi Panarin lifted his stick, but that only gave Tkachuk time to get into the play. Bennett had the presence of mind to find him for a wrister that squibbed through Kuemper with 8:40 to play.
The Kings, theoretically, carried momentum from a late goal in the opening frame and an extended power-play opportunity that spanned nearly five minutes, including 66 seconds of two-man advantage. But not only did they fail to cash in on their chance to cushion their lead early in the second period, but they gave up a goal in transition six seconds after the final Florida penalty expired, at 3:49.
Lars Eller blocked and absorbed Brandt Clarke’s shot, going the other way for a two-on-two counterattack. He passed to Jones, who beat Panarin easily to the outside to drive the net for a five-hole goal that leveled the contest.
While the Panthers won the period, they lost two players during its course.
Bizarrely, they were both being fouled by Clarke at the time they exited the game, though he did not directly cause either injury.
First, he cross-checked Eetu Luostarinen right as a shot attempt was hitting him in the shin, forcing him out of a game to which he later returned. Marchand, who made his season debut against the Ducks on Sunday after recovering from offseason surgery, was not so fortunate. After taking a high-stick from Clarke, he fell as he drove the net and his left leg buckled under him. He needed considerable help to leave the ice and did not skate another shift.
Though the Kings had no shots in the first 10:55 of the match and needed a nick-of-time poke check from defenseman Cody Ceci to avert a score-opening Florida goal, they got on the board first with one minute left in the first period.
As the Kings forechecked, Erik Haula recovered the puck behind the net, wrapping around in front to fling a sharp-angled shot on goal. It banked off Markström and straight to Laferriere at the opposite post, where he had a wide-open net.
On deck, the Kings travel to Las Vegas for a clash with the Golden Knights on Saturday.
More to come on this story.