Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for his second shutout of the season, and the Florida Panthers beat the Kings 3-0 on Wednesday night. Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett also scored for the Panthers,

Doughty plays about 24 minutes in his season debut but the Kings fall, 3-0, and have lost seven of their past nine games, scoring just 15 goals in that stretch.

The calling card of the Kings during their championship years (2012, 2014), led by Doughty and center Anze Kopitar, was being a heavy, possession-savvy team, and their shot attempts percentage at 5-on-5 has once again been near the top of the NHL over the past four seasons: Kings’ recent SAT% percentages:

Drew Doughty ’s long-awaited return to the Los Angeles Kings became imminent this week. The anticipation of the future Hall of Fame defenseman’s first game this season was such that Jim Hiller brought some levity to end a downbeat media session after a one-sided loss to Pittsburgh on Monday.

Adrian Kempe’s 24th of the season 6½ minutes later gave L.A. the lead, Darcy Kuemper preserved ... about to get an All-Star reinforcement. Drew Doughty, who broke his left ankle in a preseason ...

The Kings are built to stifle opponents and win games by narrow margins. This strategy requires the players to execute nearly flawless games. When they are unable to do so, they have relied on a resurgent Darcy Kuemper to bail them out.