The Lightning lead the best-of-7 series 2-1.
Carle hasn't played since sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 1 against the Islanders on April 27. He had one assist and a minus-2 rating in a 5-3 loss.
"You get more nervous watching than you do playing," Carle said Friday. "It's not fun to have to watch."
Game 3, which Tampa Bay won 5-4 in overtime Tuesday, was the most physical of the series thus far. Carle said that type of play likely will increase as it progresses and that doesn't concern him coming off his injury.
"You try to get yourself involved as soon as possible when you come off a break," said Carle, who has two assists in six Stanley Cup Playoff games. "Regardless of when that is, obviously in the playoffs the intensity gets ramped up. This has been a pretty physical series. You hear them talking about in the media to try and be physical on our guys, so it's something to be expected."
A loss Friday could make it the Islanders' last home game of the season; the series shifts back to Tampa Bay for Game 5 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports). A win assures New York of another home game on Tuesday.
"It's just a huge game," Islanders forward Matt Martin said. "It's a 2-1 series. Obviously the last game, it was disappointing to lose, but those things happen. It was one of our best games of the playoffs so far. There was a lot of good we can take from it, things we can correct to get better for tonight. But this game is huge and we need to get off to the same sort of start. But I like our chances. If we play like we did [Tuesday], we're going to win more than we lose. We want to get another game here, and that's our plan."
Here are the projected lineups:
LIGHTNING
Ondrej Palat - Tyler Johnson - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Valtteri Filppula - Jonathan Drouin
Cedric Paquette - Brian Boyle - Ryan Callahan
Vladislav Namestnikov - Jonathan Marchessault
Victor Hedman - Matt Carle
Jason Garrison - Andrej Sustr
Nikita Nesterov - Braydon Coburn
Matt Taormina
Ben Bishop
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Injured: Steven Stamkos (vascular surgery), Mike Blunden (upper body), Anton Stralman (leg), JT Brown (upper body), Erik Condra (upper body)
Scratched: Joel Vermin, Slater Koekkoek
ISLANDERS
Brock Nelson - John Tavares - Kyle Okposo
Nikolay Kulemin - Frans Nielsen - Josh Bailey
Shane Prince - Ryan Strome - Steve Bernier
Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy - Travis Hamonic
Calvin de Haan - Johnny Boychuk
Thomas Hickey - Ryan Pulock
Thomas Greiss
J-F Berube
Injured: Anders Lee (broken fibula), Mikhail Grabovski (upper body), Jaroslav Halak (lower body)
Scratched: Alan Quine, Eric Boulton, James Wright, Brian Strait, Marek Zidlicky, Christopher Gibson
Status report:Stamkos (no-contact jersey) and Stralman skated Friday but neither spoke with the media. Condra and Brown skated as well. … The Lightning could go with seven defensemen, including Carle. Taormina has played the past two games but had four shifts totaling 2:43 in Game 3. ... Pulock participated in an optional morning skate. If he's able to play, he would replace Zidlicky in the lineup. "It feels good," said Pulock, who hasn't played since Game 4 against the Florida Panthers in the first round because of an upper-body injury. "We'll see what happens tonight, see how it feels later and see if I play." Quine, who scored the double-overtime goal in Game 5 against Florida in the first round, was one of the last players to leave the ice Friday, an indication he won't play.
Who's hot:Johnson has two goals and four points in the Lightning's wins in Games 2 and 3. … Kucherov's last-minute tying goal in Game 3 was his League-leading seventh of the playoffs. … Drouin has one goal and three assists in the past three games and set up Kucherov's tying goal. … Clutterbuck has two goals and an assist in the series. … Bailey scored two goals in Game 3, his first game of the series. He missed the first two games because of an upper-body injury.
