Casey Cizikas is scheduled to play in his 500th game tonight, beating Brock Nelson to the milestone by one game.
They will be the 30th and 31st Islanders, including Billy Smith, to play in 500 games for the team. All but Smith, Kenny Jonsson, Claude Lapointe and Matt Martin played their first 500 NHL games as an Islander.
The Isles are 259-181-59 when Cizikas has played (since Casey debuted on February 24, 2012 the Isles are 38-34-9 when he misses a game.)
It's become hard to speak about Cizikas without also mentioning his regular linemates. Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin have both played in the same game as Cizikas 266 times (143-96-27). When at least one of the other two are missing, the Isles are 116-85-32.
Tonight will be the 350th time that Cizikas and Clutterbuck dress for the same game (191-122-36); the Isles are 196-148-47 in the 391 games that both Cizikas and Martin dress.
Martin played in his 500th Islander game late last season; tonight will be Clutterbuck's 460th game with the Isles (passing Trent Hunter for 35th place in Islander history). If he doesn't miss a game, Clutterbuck, who turned 32 on Monday, would reach 500 Islander games on February 19th in Colorado.
There's a good chance that you'll see Casey Cizikas taking the Opening face-off, something he has done 124 other times.
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick
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