Kings secure long-awaited first win, lose Quinton Byfield to upper-body injury

Kings finally get one, but lose Byfield doing it

The Los Angeles Kings, who entered Tuesday as the NHL's only winless team, beat the Washington Capitals 5-2 in Washington for their first win of the season. The game came at a cost. Center Quinton Byfield left in the first period with an upper-body injury, and coach Peter Laviolette said Byfield would be evaluated on Wednesday.

The win pushed Los Angeles to 1-6-2. The Kings had scored a league-worst 12 goals through their first six games and had managed only four goals total over their previous four games before Tuesday. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves to backstop the win. 'So it was a big win for us,' Kuemper said afterward.

Down 2-0, the Kings answered in 31 seconds

Washington jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and for a team that had not won all season, it looked like the same story again. Instead, Los Angeles scored twice in a span of 31 seconds late in the period, tying the game on goals from Adrian Kempe and Artemi Panarin. 'Seeing the pucks go in, I think helped everybody a lot,' Kempe said.

Erik Gustafsson gave the Kings a 3-2 lead in the third period, and Kempe added his second goal of the night to make it a two-goal game. Scott Laughton closed it out with a late empty-net goal, giving Los Angeles its highest-scoring output of the season at five goals.

Byfield's injury is still an open question

What is known is limited. Byfield went down in the first period with what the team is calling an upper-body injury. Laviolette said he would be evaluated on Wednesday and did not give a timeline or further detail on the extent of the injury after the game.

For a Kings team that has struggled to score all season, losing a top-six center for any length of time would be a real blow, regardless of how encouraging Tuesday's offensive outburst was. More on Byfield's status is expected once he is evaluated Wednesday.

A first win for Laviolette, too

Tuesday's win was also the first of Peter Laviolette's seventh stint as an NHL head coach. 'Everybody's happy,' Laviolette said after the game. 'I mean the guys have been working hard.'

Kuemper said the Kings talked among themselves in the third period after falling behind early. 'Everyone's going to dig down, we're going to get this job done,' he said the group told each other. With the losing streak over, the Kings now turn to settling into the rest of the season, starting with how Byfield's evaluation comes back on Wednesday.

Facts per ESPN, ESPN box score. Opinion is the taproom's.