"I've been looking forward to this day for a long time, I know Pelly has too,"
Cizikas said via a Zoom call with reporters on Monday
. "It's been almost six months since I've been skating with the guys, so to be out there it was fun, battling with them and just getting started."
Both Cizikas and Pelech said their injuries have healed well and that the extra time off benefitted both of their recoveries, as did the Phase 2 skates ahead of camp.
"The leg is doing well," Cizikas said. "I had a lot of time here to make sure that everything was well with it. I had that extra time which helped me a lot to get that strength back and to get that power back."
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The extra time especially benefitted Pelech, who assumed his season was over after getting a six-month recovery timeline in January. When the league paused on March 12, Pelech continued to rehab in hopes of being ready for if the season resumed. That hard work - from both Pelech and the Isles training staff - was realized as camp began.
"I have a lot of people to thank in terms of our training staff for dedicating some time away from their family's to help get me ready," Pelech said. "It's been a lot of hard work from a lot of people. We're just over six months and that was my original timeline, so I've been feeling good for a couple of months really and I feel 100% on the ice, which is great."
Pelech said he immediately knew that he'd suffered a major injury when the freak accident occurred, while Cizikas said he wasn't initially sure of how serious his injury was. The Islanders center had previously suffered a skate cut to his wrist in 2016.
"At the start, it just felt like I had been kicked with a steel toed boot, I didn't feel a cut or anything like that," Cizikas said. "I could kind of see through my sock and kind of just see red, and that kind of freaked me out right at the start. I couldn't really put pressure on my leg either, so that kind of scared me as well. But when I got back to the room, the docs kind of calmed me down and told me that I was lucky in a sense and it could've been a lot worse. They did a good job of kind of calming me down and make feel comfortable, especially with what was going on at that time."
Having both Pelech and Cizikas back and healthy - along with a healthy Johnny Boychuk, who also skated on Monday - is a big boost for the Islanders heading into their Stanley Cup Qualifier with the Florida Panthers.