Robin Lehner’s .940 save percentage. Valtteri Filppula’s 26.2 (11-for-42) shooting percentage. The Isles’ .643 points percentage.
There are more than a few numbers posted by this team through 49 games that are eye-popping, head-scratching and just plain surprising.
Count Casey Cizikas’ 11 goals in there. Cizikas has been among the hardest workers in his eight seasons wearing blue and orange — if Matt Martin is the Mayor of Long Island, a nickname bestowed by his good friend Cizikas, then the 27-year-old center is pretty much the Deputy Mayor. Cizikas never takes a shift off and has earned everything he’s gotten over the years with the Isles.
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The one thing that’s generally been missing from Cizikas’ game is offense. “He has it,” Martin said. “I played against him in junior and he was a decent scorer then.”
The Martin-Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck reunion has been a smashing success so far, not just because they’re, well, smashing guys. Barry Trotz has instilled a sense of ownership in those three, matching them against opposing top lines on the regular. So instead of bashing it out with an opposing fourth line, Cizikas and his wings are successfully frustrating some of the elite forwards in the league — and creating chances themselves.
Cizikas’ second-period goal against the Lightning back on Jan. 13 was a prime example. True, it was already 3-0 Isles after their three-goal barrage in the opening 4:43, but nearly a full period had elapsed and Tampa’s super-skilled top two lines hadn’t generated much. Off a cycle against the Tyler Johnson-Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov line, Cizikas crept into the slot behind Point to take Martin’s pass and deposit it home for his 11th of the year, three more than he’s had in any full NHL season.
4⃣th line staying hot tonight making it 4⃣-0 #Isles!
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) January 14, 2019
“We’re getting opportunities to play against some top players and those guys always want to be in your end, with the puck. They don’t want to be defending,” Cizikas said. “If we get pucks in deep, work them below their goal line, that’s where they’re uncomfortable. That’s where they don’t want to be. We’ve done well with it. We’re always reminding each other before games what’s made us successful.”
What made Cizikas successful under Jack Capuano was the scrappier side of his game — Cizikas isn’t a dirty player but he is relentless, the sort who easily endears himself to any coach. Grinding five-on-five play, penalty-killing and faceoffs were Cizikas’ forte, earning him a five-year extension worth $3.35 million per in the summer of 2016. A decently high price to pay for sandpaper over skill.
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This season, Cizikas has added some skill. He is shooting 18 percent, well above his 10.4 percent career average, though that’s pretty in line with Trotz’s “quality over quantity” scoring chance teaching. And some of it comes from within.
The last two seasons were rough for Cizikas, who suffered through missing 41 games due to injuries and was the main center on a penalty kill that was historically bad last season, finishing at a league-worst 73.2 percent efficiency.
“Everyone understands my personality — I try to be pretty happy all the time, a smile on my face, just be happy every day. We’re doing something we love, something not many people get the chance to do. You can take that for granted sometimes. You expect too much from yourself at times.
“I just think the confidence is there. I’m not getting down on myself a lot, talking myself through when I do have a bad shift or something I’m not happy about. Take a deep breath, tell myself to make up for it the next shift. Stay loose, stay positive — I’m one of my toughest critics and it’s hurt me in the past, getting too down on myself.”
Cizikas’ entry into the Islanders system was fraught. Projected as a second-round pick in 2009, the Islanders took him 92nd overall, a drop that came as a result of a manslaughter conviction stemming from a 2007 incident on a Toronto youth rugby pitch between Cizikas, then 16, and 15-year-old Manny Castillo, who died from his injuries.
Cizikas was charged and convicted less than a month before the 2009 draft even as Castillo’s father wondered why charges were brought. Cizikas’ name was not made public during the trial as he was still a minor, but it was an open secret when NHL teams sat down with him.
Then-GM Garth Snow, who had already secured a big prize by taking John Tavares first overall, went to owner Charles Wang on day two of that draft in Montreal to see if Wang was comfortable bringing Cizikas into the organization.
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Even with sentencing still to come the following month (he received a year’s probation and community service), Wang gave his enthusiastic support.
That tragic series of events is long in the past. As Cizikas himself noted, he is the Isles’ resident cheer squad, rarely looking anything but jazzed to be out on the ice. And what he’s done on the ice this season has gotten plenty of notice from his new coach.
“He’s a guy who just does things the right way,” Trotz said. “Someone you never have to worry about.”
The turnabout in his self-deprecating style may come from a few additions to Cizikas’ life. His son, Jack, is nearing his first birthday. “Just going home, having him there — no offense to (wife) Kristy, but it’s exciting to go home to him, walking in the door and seeing his face light up. It makes you forget why you were so mad or so down on yourself for a while,” he said. “That’s a major part of it.”
And having the Mayor back helps. Kristy Cizikas will be Sydney Esiason’s maid of honor when Esiason and Martin tie the knot this summer; Casey is a groomsman. The two couples spend plenty of time together during the season and in the offseason, even during those two years Martin was with the Leafs. Cizikas does the bulk of his offseason training on the Island and, despite he and Kristy both being Torontonians, Jack was born here.
Whatever the reasons, the Islanders are benefiting from Cizikas’ scoring touch. A 20-goal season isn’t out of reach, something that didn’t seem possible during his days grinding out against fourth lines or trying to focus on defense with teams that just couldn’t compete.
“It’s great to see and it’s coming from us doing things well as a line,” Martin said. “He’s a guy that’s worked hard every day of his career to get where he is.”
(Top photo: David Hahn / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
