The Panthers, who have won four of their last six, erased an early one-goal deficit with six unanswered goals to coast past the host San Jose Sharks.

There is hope that the Panthers will get defenseman Aaron Ekblad back in the lineup at some point while they're out west. Ekblad has been battling an undisclosed injury and missed each of Florida's past five games.

Matthew Tkachuk scored once in a three-point outing while Aaron Ekblad collected one goal and one assist in his return to the lineup to pace the visiting Florida Panthers to a 7-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

Read the recent NHL news and rumors about Aaron Ekblad for fantasy hockey. Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (upper body) is good to go

It was a strong 60-minute effort by Florida, especially when taking into account that they played more than two periods without Sam Reinhart, who plays any and all situations for the Cats.

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.

SUNRISE, Fla. – Florida Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov is skating in his 1,000th National Hockey League regular season game tonight vs. the Los Angeles Kings. The Panthers will honor Kulikov’s milestone in a pregame ceremony prior to Florida’s 6 p.m. (ET) game against the New York Islanders on Sunday, Feb. 2 at Amerant Bank Arena.

The Florida Panthers will celebrate some milestone nights on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Kings. Not only will Dmitry Kulikov play in his 1,000th NHL game, but Paul Maurice will coach in his 1,900th game.

Defenseman Aaron Ekblad had a goal and an ... and Nate Schmidt, Sam Bennett, A.J. Greer, Jesper Boqvist and Sam Reinhart also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves. Florida outscored San Jose ...

The Los Angeles Kings are in town and have practically owned the Florida Panthers over the last several seasons. Just last Wednesday, the Kings scored twice in the third to squeeze out a 2-1 win in Los Angeles.

Now that I’m coming up on 1,000, it still doesn’t make sense. It seems like I just started last year and now it’s Year 16.’