Canes coach Paul Maurice said today that forward Chad LaRose was injured during Saturday's game against the Blackhawks. LaRose has an upper-body injury, did not make the four-game road trip and will be re-evaluated next week.

Maurice said injured forwards Tuomo Ruutu, Erik Cole and Scott Walker still are not ready to play. The Canes elected to play Monday's game with 19 roster players.

There's a chance defenseman Joe Corvo could return Wednesday against Calgary. 

RALEIGH – The Carolina Hurricanes got two regulars back in their lineup, but the result was the same.

The Tampa Bay Lightning never trailed in a 3-2 win, handing the Hurricanes their third-straight loss at the RBC Center Monday.

Forwards Sergei Samsonov and Chad LaRose will return to the lineup for the Carolina Hurricanes' game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the RBC Center tonight at 7 p.m.

Samsonov and LaRose have been skating with the team for several days now and traveled with the team on last week's two-game road trip to Toronto and Detroit.

PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- Canes coach Paul Maurice said today that there would be no lineup changes for Thursday's game against the Detroit Red Wings.

Injured forwards Sergei Samsonov, Chad LaRose and Erik Cole all practiced today at Compuware Arena, home of the OHL's Plymouth Whalers. But Maurice said all three were "a ways away" physically from rejoining the lineup.

Forward Sergei Samsonov sat out another practice today and will not play Thursday against the Predators, coach Paul Maurice said.

With forwards Erik Cole and Chad LaRose still being evaluated for their injuries and still off the ice, the Canes will recall forwards Zach Boychuk and Jiri Tlusty from Albany (AHL). Both played Saturday in New York against the Rangers.

Maurice said the callups would be at practice tomorrow, adding, "I'm certainly comfortable with the two we had."

A day after the Carolina Hurricanes had only 13 skaters at practice, the team got a few bodies back and goalie Cam Ward took shots with the team for the first time since an injury on Nov. 7.

"We're closing in on 20," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "When we get to Saturday, I guarantee you we're going to have [a full roster]. We've got a couple of injured guys out there that aren't effected by skating so they're able to get through it."

No. 1 goalie Cam Ward, who was injured Nov. 7, was limber and responsive in his first day of facing shots from the team. The last two days he practiced with assistant coach Tom Barrasso.

UPDATED: Defenseman Bryan Rodney has been recalled from the Albany River Rats. 

Carolina Hurricanes forwards Erik Cole and Chad LaRose and former Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley will take questions from fans Friday night at the NHL team's "Summer Fun Fest" Friday night.

The second annual fan event is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on the South lawn of the RBC Center, with live music, games, sledding on artificial snow and other activities.

Wesley, who is now the Hurricanes' Director of Defenseman Development, will join Cole and LaRose in taking questions during a "State of the Hurricanes" forum scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

Afterward, there will be a re-broadcast of the Hurricanes' last-minute comeback win in Game 7 of its quarterfinal series against the New Jersey Devils.

Parking and admission to the event are free.

From Talking Points: 

As far as the Hurricanes are concerned, it's funny how much can change overnight. When we went to bed Tuesday, general manager Jim Rutherford's last public statement indicated that Erik Cole was ticketed elsewhere and there was a chance Chad LaRose might return to the nest quickly after testing the market.

By the time the biscuits came out of the oven Wednesday, the door was open for Cole to return and LaRose had been bid farewell. So far, that's what has happened -- Cole signed for two years at an average of $2.9 million a year and LaRose remains a free agent, with Rutherford now dangling an impending signing in front of the fan base.

Read more here.

Free agency in the NHL is a funny thing. Very little ends up being as it seems, reason goes out the window and even mild-mannered men like Montreal's Bob Gainey end up flinging money around like a Sex and the City character in a shoe store.

As far as the Hurricanes are concerned, it's funny how much can change overnight. When we went to bed Tuesday, general manager Jim Rutherford's last public statement indicated that Erik Cole was ticketed elsewhere and there was a chance Chad LaRose might return to the nest quickly after testing the market.

By the time the biscuits came out of the oven Wednesday, the door was open for Cole to return and LaRose had been bid farewell. So far, that's what has happened -- Cole signed for two years at an average of $2.9 million a year and LaRose remains a free agent, with Rutherford now dangling an impending signing in front of the fan base.

From Talking Points: 

Either way, this isn't what the Hurricanes expected to happen today. Perhaps Rutherford overestimated the desire of Cole and LaRose to remain in Carolina. Perhaps he assigned a greater financial value to that desire than they did. And perhaps they intended to test the open market all along (for a player, the chase for that one big free-agent payday can be a strong lure).

Read more here.