Pluses, minuses for Panthers-Capitals, Kings-Golden Knights

NHL Network and ESPN analyst Kevin Weekes will offer his thoughts for big games each week throughout the season.

The Florida Panthers (6-4-1) visit the Washington Capitals (5-4-1) at Capital One Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT). Then the Los Angeles Kings (7-2-2) visit the Vegas Golden Knights (11-1-1) at T-Mobile Arena (10 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT, SN360, TVAS).

Here's my breakdown of the games.

Panthers

Pluses: The Panthers have been beat up by injuries to start the season, but overall they've played fairly well. Since starting 0-2-0, they've won six of nine (6-2-1). It helps having Matthew Tkachuk (10 points) and Aleksander Barkov (10 points) healthy. Sam Reinhart leads them in goals (eight) and points (13). Sergei Bobrovsky has been quite good (2.68 goals-against average, .905 save percentage, one shutout in nine games). And they're about to get defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour back from injury soon, which only can help offensively and defensively.

Minuses: Special teams have hurt. They're 26th in the NHL on the power play (13.5 percent) and the penalty kill (71.1 percent). They also are in the bottom third of the League in goals per game (2.82; tied for 22nd) after ranking sixth last season (3.51) and first in 2021-22 (4.11).

Capitals

Pluses: After a slow start (1-3-1), they've recovered with four wins in their past five games (4-1-0). This will be their 11th game of the season and already their eighth at home, where they're 4-3-0. Banking points at home is key, especially with 11 of their next 16 after this one on the road. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Dylan Strome leads them with six goals and Tom Wilson is next with three. They'll need more players contributing with only nine having scored this season.

Minuses: It's been a challenging season so far. Part of that has been health related, Forward Nicklas Backstrom having to step away because of the hip injury is a tough blow. Part of that is kind of the makeup of their roster. I think they need to realize that they can't keep playing an up-tempo rush game. They're going to have to play more of a cycle game offensively and try to win the low-scoring games since they're scoring fewer than two goals per game (1.90, 31st). And it's been a slow start for Alex Ovechkin with just two goals in 10 games.

Kings

Pluses: The Kings have been very good but haven't been getting their credit, likely because of the Golden Knights, who have been steamrolling through the League. The Kings have won three straight, outscoring opponents 12-3. Credit needs to go to Cam Talbot, who's 6-2-1 with a 2.14 GAA, .923 save percentage and one shutout in nine games in his first season in Los Angeles. Quinton Byfield has been taking huge strides and is almost a point per game player (10 points in 11 games). Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala each have 12 points, and Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore have 11 apiece. Drew Doughty in his 16th NHL season is leading the League in ice time per game (26:07).

Minuses: I know this game is on the road, where the Kings are 6-0-0, but the only negative for them is that they're 1-2-2 at home. If they could play better at Crypto.com Arena, where they were 26-11-4 last season, they could be a very dangerous team.

Golden Knights

Pluses: We knew they weren't going to go the whole season without losing a game in regulation but they're still the most complete team in the NHL. They're sixth in goals per game (3.77) and third in goals-against per game (2.15). They have one of the deepest forward groups led by William Karlsson, Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault, and defensemen Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo also have provided offense. To me, they didn't do anything out of the ordinary and still defeated the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 in a statement win Saturday.

Minuses: Anything negative said about the Golden Knights thus far would be nitpicking, like how they allowed four goals in the third period of a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, their first regulation loss of the season.