With New York Islanders Cizikas out four weeks, Snow could buy at deadline
Feb 19, 2017; Brooklyn, NY, USA; New York Islanders center Casey Cizikas (53) celebrates his goal during the second period against the New Jersey Devils at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

With Cizikas looking at the IR for an extended amount of time, could this force Garth Snow’s hand in making a move at the deadline?

Forward Casey Cizikas will miss a month with an upper-body injury with a report coming from a league source that he broke his right hand during Tuesday’s game.

The injury happened when Cizikas took a shot in the second period in Detroit. He got his stick tangled up with Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall which jammed his left hand. Cizikas left and did not return to the game.

This could now force general manager Garth Snow to push for another forward after this recent bad luck. Cizikas will be missed more as a penalty killing forward than a scoring one. With only seven goals and 16 assists on the season so far fans can see why.

Cizikas is a much grittier forward than most. He can always be found covering someone positionally, and always hustles on the play.

All the recent injuries must have Snow at least a little worried.

Alternatives

With Shane Prince also suffering from an upper body injury, Bracken Kearns has been recalled and will step in for him. The 35-year-old Bridgeport forward is expected to play on the fourth line next to Stephen Gionta and Nikolay Kulemin. This all happened before the news of Cizikas was officially reported.

The injury bug is hitting the islanders hardest now that the team is playing some of their best hockey. There is no time for the Islanders to start faulting with the long road trip and the season more than half over. With the Islanders being so close to a playoff spot, the time is now to make a move and acquire a forward. Most fans would sign up for Matt Duchene, but at what price? The offer may be on the table, but we should all hope it is reasonable and won’t give up too much in the long-run.

With less than a week to go the trade deadline, there will be plenty of time to speculate what is going to happen. It is possible that nothing will happen. You never know in these situations. Or better yet, Snow could pick up a rental player and hope for the best. That could happen but it wouldn’t be ideal. That may not be the move needed to clinch a  playoff spot and win a playoff round like last season.

A lot of watching and waiting will be done through next week, along with a little hope and some prayers.