TORONTO — Canes coach Paul Maurice said not to read much into his team's lines today during the morning skate at Air Canada Centre, but it was hard not to.
There was Ray Whitney, the source of so much trade speculation, on a line with Rod Brind'Amour and Pat Dwyer. There was Eric Staal centering Scott Walker and Chad LaRose. Jussi Jokinen also was back at center, with Erik Cole and Sergei Samsonov on the wings, and Brandon Sutter centering Tuomo Ruutu and Tom Kostopoulos.
Whitney, a fourth-liner?
"Well, we let them form their own lines for the morning skate," Maurice said, smiling. "We've got a little more defined lines, but we need to wait to the game before we're fully sure who's in the lineup."
Translation: who might be traded. The Canes have a surplus of forwards and seven defensemen, but that could change in the next few hours, although general manager Jim Rutherford said it has been a mostly quiet day.
"It's an unusual thing out there with the potential things that could happen," Maurice said. "Very probably nothing happens, but for the first time we have, as of right now, with the exception of one game in Pittsburgh, we'll have to make a healthy scratch here.
"We'll have to wait until the warmups and game time before we do that. We have an extra forward, an extra D. We don't know what to do with ourselves."
Maurice also made the decision to give Justin Peters his third NHL start rather than go with veteran Manny Legace coming out of the Olympic break. Peters, who beat the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils in his first two starts this season, is from Blyth, Ontario.
"In his last game, against New Jersey, I thought he was very, very comfortable and played really well," Maurice said of the Canes' 5-2 win in their last game before the break. "He had the advantage of going down to the American League (with Albany) and playing this week, so he's played three of the last five days and he's close to game-ready.
"And we're also testing him a little bit. His first game was against the Islanders and they had some injuries, so there was a tremendous amount of firepower. But then you throw him into the home game against New Jersey, so that's a little more.
"Being a kid from Ontario, he has to fight these emotions. This is a big game for him, as it is for any Canadian kid but certainly for a kid from Ontario to get a start in this building is a big deal for him and it's part of a process we want him to go through"
A Raleigh native, Chip has worked at the N&O since 1979 and is the Canes beat writer. He can be reached at 
