Barzal and Cizikas Clicking for Islanders

Mathew Barzal and Casey Cizikas have been teammates since the 2017-18 season, but their paths really haven't crossed much on the ice.
The two centers play on different lines, with Cizikas setting the tone and pace on the Identity Line, and Barzal centering one of the Islanders scoring units. They play on different special teams, with Barzal on the power play and Cizikas deploying as one of the top penalty killers. Even their jobs are different, Barzal providing offense while Cizikas is usually preventing it against the opposition.

They are effectively the opposite ends of the Islanders battery, but in five periods together as linemates, they've provided the Islanders with some juice. Since Head Coach Lane Lambert started Barzal and Cizikas together on New Year's Day in Seattle, the duo has combined for seven points (3G, 4A).
Cizikas fed Barzal for the Islanders' lone goal in a 4-1 loss to the Kraken in Seattle, and Lambert cited Barzal's play as a bright spot in an otherwise dim game for the Islanders, who rebounded with a terrific effort in Vancouver.

Barzal returned the favor for Cizikas in Vancouver, making a nifty no-look pass to hit Cizikas in stride before he snapped the 5-2 backbreaker past Spencer Martin in the third period. Barzal finished the game with three points (1G, 2A), extending his goal streak to a career-long four games, while Cizikas notched a goal and an assist.
"Casey is great, he's easy to play with and you know what you're getting from him every night," Barzal told Islanders radio in Seattle. "He's a dog out there and sometimes that's what I need, a guy to go win battles and get me the puck."
The two players have spoken about the benefits of playing with each other in their five-period stint. Cizikas' tenacious forechecking gives Barzal a puck-retrieving partner in the corners or along the boards, a similar role that Leo Komarov played on his wing at times in the 2021 season. Cizikas' forecheck led the Canucks to turn the puck over to Barzal in the defensive zone, which Barzal buried.
"Casey gets in on the forecheck," Lambert said on Tuesday night. "Casey's a worker. He creates some pucks for Mat and then he gets rewarded. He scored a heck of a goal of a good play by Barzal."
"A guy who gets it on the forecheck helps for sure," Lambert added. "And it gets [Barzal] going as well because I thought Mat forechecked well himself [Tuesday]."

Cizikas is also a face-off option should Barzal, whose face-off percentages are the lowest of the team's regular centers, be on his off side. Cizikas boasts a 54.6% face-off percentage this season and Lambert said that was a factor in putting them together initially in Seattle.
The benefits of playing with a dynamic playmaker like Barzal were clear on Cizikas' goal in Vancouver. Not only can Barzal, who leads the team with 30 assists, thread passes with the best of them, but his skating ability usually garners extra attention from defenders, freeing up room for his linemates.
"You kind of follow him up the ice and try to find an area where you know, he's going to be able to get you the puck," Cizikas said. "You give him a yell and a holler and if he thinks he can get it there, he's going to try and that's the biggest thing."
And while Cizikas has found an identity as a top-tier penalty killer and grinder, he does have a 20-goal season on his NHL resume (2018-19) and was an offensive producer way back in Bridgeport (66 points in 83 games), so finishing isn't foreign to him.
"The way [Barzal] is dominating the play with the puck, the way he's controlling it and he's making the other team as uncomfortable as I've seen in a long time," Cizikas said. "He's a fun guy to play with when he's doing that."