Kings finally win, but Byfield doesn't finish it

Los Angeles got the result Tuesday — a 5-2 win over Washington — but walked away with a fresh problem. Quinton Byfield left with an upper-body injury, putting a significant asterisk on what was otherwise the Kings' first win of the young season. They had entered the night as the NHL's only winless team.

The Byfield news lands hard because of where the Kings already stood on the injury front. Mats Zuccarello, the marquee offseason addition, went down with a shoulder injury just three games in and has been out for weeks. The team has been leaning on AHL callup Jared Wright to fill that offensive void. Adding Byfield — one of the team's foundational pieces up the middle — to the concern list is a different order of problem entirely.

The win matters. Getting off the schneid, even against Washington, stops the bleeding on the standings page and gives the room something to work with. But the Kings now have to figure out how to sustain it without knowing when Byfield comes back. That's the story for the next stretch, not the scoreline from Tuesday.