- Quinton Byfield left Tuesday’s game in Washington after four shifts
- The Kings called it an upper-body injury and ruled him out
- Read below for how Byfield’s rough start and a winless Kings season add to the problem
The Kings lost Quinton Byfield early in Tuesday night’s game against the Capitals.
The center played just four shifts before leaving with what the team is calling an upper-body injury. Los Angeles announced that he won’t return:
Kings team reporter Zach Dooley noticed Byfield missing from the bench before the announcement came. Dooley also passed along that Byfield went down briefly at Monday’s practice and said afterward he felt “a little tight” without seeming too worried. Whether the two are connected isn’t known.
Nothing in the game itself looked like the cause, so there’s no injury clip to show. The Kings haven’t given a timeline.
The timing is brutal for a team that entered the night as the only one in the league without a win. Los Angeles has earned points in overtime losses to San Jose and Vegas and dropped its other four games in regulation, three of them by at least three goals.
Byfield has been the top-line center since Anze Kopitar retired after last season, and the start has been bumpy. He had a goal and an assist through six games with a minus-6 rating, while averaging 21:03 a night. The Kings have controlled most of the chances with him on the ice at 5-on-5, so the results haven’t matched the play.
Scoring has been a problem across the lineup. Entering Tuesday, no Kings skater was at a point-per-game pace, and defenseman Brandt Clarke was the only one with more than four points.
Los Angeles is already short-handed up front after Mats Zuccarello went week-to-week earlier this month. Losing the center who was supposed to carry the team makes a slow start harder to fix.
