Just over a month ago, Casey Cizikas was in the middle of one of the worst stretches of his career. He knew how bad things were, which was part of the problem.
Cizikas can be relentless in his self-criticism, which is part of the mentality that got him through 15 years in the NHL. Now it was a weapon his brain was wielding against him. He’d go back and watch a game, then rewind the same play “five, 10, 15 times,” he said. “I should have done this, I should have done this, why didn’t I do this?”
It wasn’t helping. According to Evolving Hockey, Cizikas’ expected goals rate of 31.52 was the second-worst in the NHL among players with over 100 minutes through Nov. 7.
On either side of that day, Cizikas had two meetings. The first, which coach Patrick Roy made public on Saturday night in Tampa, was more traditional. Roy declined to go into detail about the conversation, which took place before the Islanders faced the Rangers at the Garden on Nov. 8, but it’s not hard to figure out, in broad strokes, what was discussed.