Islanders lose Casey Cizikas, Tom Kuhnhackl for rest of the playoffs

The Islanders will be without the need of forwards Casey Cizikas and Tom Kuhnhackl for the remainder of the playoffs.

Just before the Isles’ 4-1 decline to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday afternoon, the team declared that Cizikas and Kuhnhackl sustained accidents and would be unavailable for the relaxation of the postseason. Both of those gamers still left the Edmonton bubble.

Barry Trotz claimed he understood Saturday night time one particular of the two would be leaving the bubble ahead of finding out about the other Sunday morning.

“They both necessarily mean a lot to our team, it is not just one particular or the other,” defenseman Nick Leddy claimed on a Zoom phone following Sunday’s decline. “It’s very rough. You never want to see a person get damage. The most significant detail is a next-man mentality. We need fellas to action up in our locker home and I have faith we’ll do that.”

Losing Cizikas and Kuhnhackl is a key strike to the Islanders’ depth. Even even though Kuhnhackl performed in just a few games this postseason, it was a luxurious to have him waiting around in the wings.

Cizikas performed a critical job centering the fourth line, normally recognised as the Id Line, concerning Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. With no Cizikas, Trotz bumped Martin and Clutterbuck to the wings on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s line and designed a new fourth line of Ross Johnston, Derick Brassard and Leo Komarov.

The 28-12 months-previous Kuhnhackl hadn’t performed considering the fact that the initially a few games of the enjoy-in round in opposition to the Panthers. Cizikas, who has collected two helps in eighteen games, was scratched for Sport 3 Friday night time.

With the strains out of whack, the Islanders struggled to create offense as the Lightning held them to just one particular intention for the second time this series.

“We want all those fellas in the lineup, but all those have been just the playing cards we have been dealt ideal now,” Josh Bailey claimed.


The Islanders went -for-3 on the electricity enjoy, but went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

As a result of four games in opposition to Tampa Bay, the Islanders have gone 1-for-fourteen with the man-edge although the Lightning are 4-for-thirteen.

“I assume, for the most portion, we’ve been rather close to even in opposition to a very fantastic electricity enjoy,” Trotz claimed. “[Sunday] they did not get one particular, we did not get one particular, the game was five-on-five.”


Leddy claimed he imagined the Islanders have been obtaining fantastic possibilities but have been just falling limited on the complete. He pinned some of the blame on himself, noting that he wishes to be superior at obtaining pucks to the web and by visitors more properly.

“We all just have to be a small superior, it starts off with us and we can build a lot of momentum for our team,” he claimed. “We need to start carrying out that.”