Tkachuk wins it in L.A., but Marchand's knee costs Florida

Panthers 2, Kings 1. Florida finally won one in 60 minutes, and it cost them Brad Marchand to do it.

That's the whole evening, summarized in a single uncomfortable sentence. The cats out-worked a Kings team that's still searching for its first victory, Matthew Tkachuk finished it in the third, and the room spent the final 20 minutes playing for a teammate who couldn't put weight on his left leg.

How it went

Los Angeles scored first. Alex Laferriere beat Jacob Markstrom at 19:00 of the first off an Erik Haula feed. Florida then took two more penalties before the intermission and went to the room trailing by one.

Seth Jones tied it at 3:49 of the second, cutting toward the net on a rush and going top shelf on Darcy Kuemper, with Lars Eller credited with the assist.

Then, with 52.6 seconds left in the second, Brandt Clarke caught Marchand with a high stick as he drove the net. Marchand twisted into the right post and his left leg bent the wrong way. Brady Tkachuk and Niko Mikkola helped him to the bench, and he didn't return.

Florida got four minutes of power play out of it and didn't score. Eventually, that failure didn't matter. At 11:20 of the third, Sam Bennett found Matthew Tkachuk trailing in on the rush, and Tkachuk snapped a wrist shot from the left circle past Kuemper.

Markstrom handled the remainder of the evening, finishing with 19 saves on 20 shots.

Three things from Los Angeles

1. The kill won this game. Florida was shorthanded five times, including a four-minute high-sticking double minor on Dmitry Kulikov to end the first, and gave up nothing. The power play went 0-for-6. The kill made sure it didn't cost them.

2. Jones is carrying the blue line. He played 25:33, most of any skater on either side, and scored the tying goal. Through four games he's averaging 27.7 minutes a night, per NHL data. Without Barkov, that's what the back end has to look like.

3. The points are coming from three familiar names. Tkachuk, Bennett and Eller each have a point in three straight games, by our count. Everybody's debating who should center the top line, but the more important question, who's actually producing, already has an answer.

Ferda play of the night

Garnet Hathaway dropped the gloves with Joel Edmundson at 7:40 of the second, with the game tied at one. Five minutes each, and a reminder to the Kings that this lineup, short two of its best players, still wasn't going to be pushed around. He played under eight minutes all night and still found a way to matter. That's ferda.

What they said

"We'll get him looked at probably Thursday," Maurice said of Marchand.

"Yeah, brutal," Tkachuk said. "Haven't seen him yet, but obviously want to check on him."

"Everyone gets hit with injuries, right?" Jones said. "We're not going to have a victim mentality. It's next man up."

Pabs' read

Jones said it better than I can. This team has lost its captain and possibly its most irritating winger within a single week, and it still came home from a four-game trip at 2-0-2.

Markstrom is 2-0-1 with a .929 save percentage through three starts, by our count, and he's the biggest reason the record looks respectable. The power play is the only thing that isn't pulling its weight, and I already said my piece about the power play's 1-for-23 trip.

Next up: the home opener, Saturday at 6 p.m. against Minnesota. Dale.