#Islanders’ Adam Pelech, Casey Cizikas back on ice in big lineup boost

Islanders coach Barry Trotz didn’t know what to expect from defenseman Adam Pelech’s first day skating with the team since suffering an Achilles injury more than six months ago. But he was hopeful.

“I’ve listened to my assistant coaches who have been on the ice with the players and they kept saying he hasn’t missed a beat, he looks like himself,” Trotz said on a Zoom call with reporters following Day 1 of training camp 2.0 Monday. “And I saw that today.”

Pelech tore his Achilles in pregame warm-ups Jan. 2 against the Devils. After undergoing surgery, it was assumed that he was done for the remainder of the regular season, with little to no hope of recovering by the usual start of the playoffs in April.

So when the NHL was suspended in March and rumors of a modified playoff tournament began to churn, it occurred to Pelech he might be able to finish out this season.

“When everything happened in March, that was kind of a turning point where we figured that I might have a chance to play again depending on how this plays out,” Pelech said. “I’ve been feeling good for a couple months now really and I feel 100 percent on the ice, which is great.”

The 25-year-old Pelech said within a few minutes of getting hurt, it was easy to figure out what kind of injury it was. Asked if he would change his warm-ups routine due to his injury, Pelech said he didn’t think there was any correlation between the two.

“I don’t think that the reason I got hurt is because of what I was doing [during warm-ups] and even the doctors said it could’ve happened walking down the street,” he said. “That’s how much of a freak accident it was.”

Pelech mentioned how frustrating it was for him to be sidelined for as long as he was, specifically when the Islanders — 10-12-7 without him this season — went on a seven-game losing streak just before the pause in play.

Since the league permitted rehabilitating players to use team facilities during the coronavirus shutdown, Pelech, in a way, had a head start on some of his teammates. Trotz said that was evident Monday.

“You tend to forget some of the little nuances that he has as a player and the reads and the great stick and all that. I saw it today,” Trotz said. “He made a couple guys look very ordinary when it came to some one-on-one stuff.”

Pelech isn’t the only once-injured Islander to be getting a second chance at this season. Center Casey Cizikas was sidelined a little more than a month after Pelech went down, taking a skate blade to the leg on Feb. 11 against the Flyers.

“It kind of just felt like I just got hit with a steel-toed boot, I didn’t feel a cut or anything like that,” Cizikas said. “When I looked down initially, I could kind of see through my sock and kind of just see red there and that kind of freaked me out. I couldn’t really put pressure on my leg either so that kind of scared me as well.”

Cizikas was projected to be out for three to four weeks. But even up until what proved to be the last game of the regular season there were no signs of Cizikas returning. He emphasized just how much the extra time off the ice worked in his favor.

The Islanders went 2-11 with Cizikas out of the lineup. They went 25-10-3 at the start of the season when both Pelech and Cizikas were healthy.

“They look normal. They look like they’ve been playing an 82-game schedule and right through,” Trotz said. “I was really happy with both of them. You talk about people who look fresh and excited.

“Both those guys, I think that they’re probably leading the pack when it comes to the excitement that they have on the ice.”