Los Angeles Kings head west, leave Florida Panthers in their dust

The Los Angeles Kings opened their four-game east coast swing with a victory by the slimmest of margins.

They closed the trip in a rout.

Los Angeles, which was outscored by ten goals in its previous two losses, steamrolled the host Florida Panthers 6-3 at BB&T Center on Thursday night.

Now, the Kings – who lost by identical 5-0 scores in Washington and Tampa after winning 1-0 in Philadelphia – head home.

The Panthers will meet them in L.A.

Florida, which saw coach Tom Rowe pull his goalie not once but twice during the onslaught, embark on a five-game trip which starts Saturday afternoon in Nashville and makes stops in San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles before wrapping up in St. Louis.

It looked like the Panthers – coming off a nice off week which may have been a little too nice — already had their bags packed and cars waiting for a lift to the airport.

Los Angeles scored the first two goals within the first 8:16 before Jussi Jokinen made it a game by scoring at 12:04 of the first.

When Tyler Toffoli scored about three minutes later, Rowe had seen enough and replaced starter James Reimer with Roberto Luongo.

Reimer found his way back into the net when the Kings scored three goals in the first 7:31 of the second period to take a commanding 6-1 lead. Luongo was then the one heading back to the bench.

Los Angeles scored its first three goals off eight shots against Reimer; it got three off nine shots against Luongo.

Down 3-1, the Panthers gave up goals to Tanner Pearson and Dwight King in a span of just 21 seconds as the Kings broke things wide open.

Florida got goals from Jonathan Marchessault and Sasha Barkov (with 21.2 seconds left) long after the game had been competitive.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Los Angeles Kings head west, leave Florida Panthers in their dust."