The Florida Panthers and the Los Angeles Kings are both coming off losses heading into their game on Wednesday night in Sunrise, Fla.
The Kings lost 5-2 on the road to the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night and the Panthers fell 4-1 to the host Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
The Kings, third in the Pacific Division, have dropped six of their past eight (2-5-1) and have only 15 goals in that span. The game against the Panthers is the third of a five-game road trip.
Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield scored for Los Angeles on Monday and Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves.
“I think we should be frustrated,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “I thought the first period was pretty good, but we had a lot of turnovers in the second period. We were forechecking in the first and didn’t in the second.
“If I had to come up for a theme when things haven’t been going well, it is not being willing to forecheck in the second period.”
Without the help of Red Wings’ defenseman Moritz Seider, the Kings would’ve managed only one goal in the game and 14 during their skid. After Detroit won a faceoff in its own zone late in the first period, the puck slid towards the net. Seider tried to take the puck behind the net, but it slid off the end of his stick, past goalie Cam Talbot, off the inside of the goal post and into the net. Byfield was credited with the goal, which gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead.
But the Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond made it 2-1 just 35 seconds later and Detroit scored twice in each of the second and third periods.
“That was a very lucky goal for us and a very timely response from them,” Hiller said.
The loss to the Golden Knights gave the Panthers, who are second in the Atlantic Division, a 2-2 road trip. It was the second of back-to-back games for the Panthers, who defeated San Jose 7-2 on Saturday.
“I’m glad the (road trip) is over,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “When we go .500, we’re not going to brag about that. We’ve been .500 for a month, but we just played 16 road games, and back-to-backs are a challenge for us. We’re going to deal with it for the rest of the year, so we want to keep these games tight. We were able to do that for the most part. I don’t think we got outshot tonight, so I don’t think we necessarily outplayed it. … We were a little behind him in some of our decision-making.”
Anton Lundell got the goal and Spencer Knight made 22 saves.
“It was a hard battle against them. … That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Knight said.
Wednesday night’s game will be a rematch of a Jan. 22 contest in Los Angeles, in which the Kings beat the Panthers 2-1.
Sunday was Panthers’ defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s second game back after missing seven games with an upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media
