Devils goalie didn't like Lack of playing time in Calgary

At this point, given the season he’s had, Eddie Lack would just like a start.

But the 30-year-old Swedish goalie certainly would appreciate being in net when the Devils face his former team, the Flames, on Thursday night at Prudential Center (Faceoff: 7 p.m.; Television: MSG Plus; Radio: digital WFAN.com, One Jersey Network).

“Obviously, I’ve been looking at this week and seeing what kind of games are coming up,” Lack told The Record/NorthJersey.com. “It would be great to play that game but it’s not really my decision. It’s definitely a team that I would like to win against.”

Lack, acquired from the Flames for defenseman Dalton Prout on Dec. 30 and recalled from Binghamton (AHL) on Sunday, made his Devils’ debut stopping 11 of 12 shots in Tuesday night’s 5-3 loss at Ottawa.

Wednesday’s fallout from Tuesday’s loss was the Senators’ Alexandre Burrows being suspended 10 games by the NHL Player Safety Department for “aggressor/kneeing” Taylor Hall at 10:02 of the second period.

He received two minutes for cross checking and two minutes for roughing in retaliating to Hall’s hard, unpenalized check, with Hall describing Burrows as “losing his mind” and punching him “in the back of the head 10 times.” Burrows, on top of Hall, was also caught on camera driving his knee into Hall’s helmet.

NHL Player Safety did not accept Burrows’ explanation, via a telephone hearing after Burrows waived his right to an in-person hearing, that he wound up kicking Hall as he tried to free himself with his arms tied up.

Lack was already in the game at the time of Burrows’ enraged eruption.

Keith Kinkaid, bidding for his career-high fourth straight win with No. 1 goalie Cory Schneider (groin) out for the fifth straight game, was pulled at 8:43 of the second period after allowing four goals on 20 shots.

Schneider will be unavailable on Thursday night but the Devils did not practice on Wednesday, so the big reveal of who gets the start must wait until Thursday morning.

Lack, who spent the previous two seasons with the Hurricanes and also played for the Canucks, working with current Devils goaltending coach Roland Melanson, played just four games for the Flames. They acquired him along with defenseman Ryan Murphay and a seventh-round pick in 2019 in exchange for defenseman Keegan Kanzig and a sixth-round pick in 2019 on June 29 and the Hurricanes retained half of Lack’s $2.75 million salary for this season.

Lack will be an unrestricted free agent after completing his two-year, $5.5 million deal.

Lack started two games for the Flames and went 1-2-0 with a 5.29 goals-against average and an .813 save percentage. His best season came with the Canucks in 2014-15 when he went 18-13-4 with a 2.45 GAA and a .921 save percentage as he split the goaltending chores with Ryan Miller (and was Burrows’ teammates).

Mike Smith has played in 45 of the Flames’ 53 games this season but Lack questioned that the disparity in games played was solely because of Smith’s performance. Smith is 22-15-6 with a 2.50 GAA and a .922 save percentage.

“Honestly, I don’t even think it had anything to do with Smitty,” Lack said. “He played really, really good but I can’t see why you can’t have two goalies going. That’s something that these guys [the Devils] have done good here. They’ve got two goalies going and both are getting wins.

“That’s the kind of teams I’ve been on in the past and that’s how I thought it was going to be in Calgary,” Lack added. “They wanted something different and I wasn’t part of the plan.”

E-mail: grossa@northjersey.com