Quick hits from the morning skate: Canes-Isles

Coming off arguably his best effort of the season, Eddie Lack again will be the Carolina Hurricanes’ starting goalie Saturday against the New York Islanders.

Lack stopped 42 of 44 shots Thursday in the Canes’ 3-2 road win at Columbus. His season high is 44 saves March 17 against Pittsburgh, but that came in a 4-2 loss to the Pens.

“I thought he battled, I thought he was big, I thought he had a lot of desperation-type saves,” Peters said. “He gave us a chance to stay in the game. I didn’t think we were very good early but he let us hang around.”

The Canes, playing their last back-to-back of the season, host the New Jersey Devils in an Easter Sunday game. Peters said a decision on a starting goalie would be made after Saturday’s game.

-- Forward Phil Di Giuseppe was not at Saturday’s morning skate after an injury in the Columbus game, and Peters said he may be out “a day or two.”

Di Giuseppe missed six games after suffering a concussion Jan. 2 against Nashville. Asked if Di Giuseppe was again concussed, Peters said, “I don’t know for sure.”

The Canes recalled forward Patrick Brown on Friday from the Charlotte Checkers (AHL). At the skate, Brown was on a line with Jay McClement and Chris Terry.

The other lines had Jordan Staal centering Joakim Nordstrom and Elias Lindholm, Victor Rask at center with Jeff Skinner and Riley Nash, and Brad Malone centering Nathan Gerbe and Brody Sutter.

The defensive pairs were Jaccob Slavin-Justin Faulk, Noah Hanifin-Brett Pesce and Ron Hainsey-Ryan Murphy.

-- The Isles are sixth in the Eastern Conference with 87 points (39-25-9) but have dropped four of the last five after a 7-4 beating at Tampa Bay on Friday, giving up four third-period goals.

“Any time you’re playing somebody back to back you know that they’re going to be game-ready,” Peters said. “We’ve got to make sure we play at a high level early. And if they’re going to have any signs of fatigue it will be in the second half of the game, but we’ve got to invest early.”

The Canes are 4-2-4 since the Feb. 29 trade deadline but ended a five-game winless streak (0-2-3) by beating the Blue Jackets.

“We’ve played hard,” Peters said. “We’ve played quite well since the trade deadline, in my opinion, and we’ve got to continue that.”,

-- Justin Faulk returned to the lineup against Columbus after missing 18 of 19 games with an ankle injury and had 20:46 of ice time.

“He’ll start feeling better each and every game he plays,” Peters said. “Obviously, your timing will improve, your game shape will improve. And you go into the summer knowing that you’re back, and that’s an important thing. You never want to miss the final part of the season and have doubts lingering going into the preseason.”

-- The Islanders rank second in the NHL in penalty killing (85.6 percent) and the Canes are fifth (84.3). Carolina has killed off its last 17 penalties and 89 of 99 since Jan. 1. …

The Canes are 8-10 in games decided in overtime and 1-4 in shootouts this season. The 14 losses are a league high. Vancouver, Nashville and Philadelphia each have 13.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Quick hits from the morning skate: Canes-Isles."