Sandis Vilmanis Returns, Akira Schmid Starts In Goal As Panthers Host Detroit

The Florida Panthers are back in town for a rare home game on Thursday night.

While it’s unfortunate that the Cats won’t be around very long, they did provide some positive news following their morning skate at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale.

Joining the team on the ice was injured forward Sandis Vilmanis, who was knocked out of Saturday’s road defeat to the Washington Capitals by an illegal check from forward Tom Wilson.

Wilson was subsequently ejected from the game, and Vilmanis missed each of Florida’s final two outings on their road trip.

He was back on the ice Thursday, skating on a familiar line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.

After the skate, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice confirmed that the young forward would be back in the lineup.

“He’s in tonight, he’s ready to go,” he said.

As for the hit, Maurice expressed a feeling of relief that the result wasn’t worse.

It was one of those situations where the hit itself looked a lot worse than the resulting impact, fortunately for Vilmanis and the Panthers.

“It could’ve been real bad,” Maurice said. “They took a bunch of pictures and had a bunch of smart guys look at it and say it wasn’t bad. It was just going to be as pain tolerated, some of the swelling came down, and he felt good two days ago. He wasn’t quite ready to go, but I think we were pretty sure yesterday that he’d be in today.”

In goal, Florida will turn to Akira Schmid following consecutive starts by Jacob Markstrom to end the road trip.

Prior to Saturday’s defeat in DC, Schmid had won three straight starts and four of his past five appearances. He currently holds a 5-3-1 record to go with an even 3.00 goals against average and .886 save percentage.

When confirming Schmid’s start, Maurice indicated that both goaltenders could see regular playing time in the coming days and weeks due to Florida’s tightly packed schedule.

“Akira has played really well,” said Maurice. “With seven games in 11 days, we’re probably in a bit of a rotation from here for the rest of the games.”

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Thursday’s tilt with the Red Wings:

Brady Tkachuk – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Reinhart – Lars Eller

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sandis Vilmanis

Boko Imama – Cole Schwindt – Garnet Hathaway

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones

Dmitry Kulikov – Radko Gudas

LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA

Weighing The Positives And Negatives Of Having Imama, Hathaway On The Panthers' Fourth Line

Sam Bennett Appears To Have Found Scoring Touch After Slow Start To Season

Aleksander Barkov, Brad Marchand 'Within 2 Weeks' Of Returning To Panthers Lineup, Per Paul Maurice

Panthers' Jack Devine Will Make Season Debut As Sandis Vilmanis Remains Out

'I'll Leave That To The Department Of Player Safety,' Panthers' Sandis Vilmanis Exits Game With An Undisclosed Injury

Panthers Come Up Short In DC Despite Pair Of Goals By Brady Tkachuk