Islanders' Cal Clutterbuck to play 1,000th game on Wednesday vs. Flyers

We waited until after Game No. 999 to discuss Cal Clutterbuck’s upcoming milestone because, honestly, given the hard-edged way he goes about his job and the injuries that have been associated with his style of play, any chat before that seemed like a jinx invitation.

The Islanders’ fourth-line stalwart — still one of the NHL’s top agitators — will play his 1,000th game on Wednesday night against the Flyers at UBS Arena. Clutterbuck, who turned 36 on Saturday as the Islanders concluded a four-game western swing with a 5-4, four-round shootout win over the Flames to snap an 0-4-3 skid, has dressed for all 17 games.

So with three days between games, Clutterbuck finally was able to look ahead to reaching 1,000 and reflect on what it will mean for him.

Clutterbuck may be one of the more physical players in the NHL but, off the ice, he often is described as one of the most cerebral.

If he thinks about a subject, he gives it deep thought.

“I probably will tonight, a little bit,” Clutterbuck told Newsday in the visitors’ dressing room in Calgary on Saturday. “We just wanted to make sure I got through.”

Clutterbuck added that his thoughts on the milestone are more about the other people in his life.

“It means a lot to me,” he said. “It means a lot more to the people who helped me along the way. For me, it’s for them. I’ve been through a lot.”

He would have reached 1,000 games last season had he not missed 33 games because of injuries. He was shut down in 2021-22 after 59 games for shoulder surgery. He still has some loss of feeling in his left hand after being slashed on his left wrist by the Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron’s skate blade on Dec. 19, 2019.

And so on.

“Add a few more hundred to that,” Anders Lee said of Clutterbuck finally reaching 1,000. “The way he’s played the game for the last 15 years is pretty special. It takes not only a heck of an effort, but your body goes through a lot. He’s been through the wringer with some things that naturally happen the way he plays the game.”

Clutterbuck has never played the full 82 games since breaking in as a rookie with the Wild in 2008-09.

“He plays physical and he plays hard and he’s done that for the entirety of his career,” said Casey Cizikas, Clutterbuck’s longtime linemate. “It’s definitely an accomplishment and something he should be extremely proud of.”

There’s almost a Clark Kent/ Superman feel to Clutterbuck. He dresses well off the ice, with his look completed by black, rounded glasses.

On the ice, Clutterbuck plays a fearless game, using his verbal skills as much as his physicality to rub opponents raw.

“That’s Clutter,” Lee said. “We don’t know if there’s a filter there. He’s not afraid to say what he feels or what’s going on.”

“I think he’s intelligent,” said Matt Martin, the other member of the Identity Line, which first assembled in 2013 when Clutterbuck was acquired from the Wild for Nino Niederreiter. “You don’t just play 1,000 games in the NHL just because you’re willing to body check and bang. You have to be smart. You have to be a good hockey player with good hockey sense.”

Clutterbuck is the NHL’s all-time hits leader with 3,798 — the NHL started keeping the statistic in 2005-06 — with Martin second at 3,734.

Clutterbuck also has notched 138 goals, 142 assists and 684 penalty minutes. He’s played 653 of his games with the Islanders.

His cerebral nature is born out of his natural curiosity.

“He keeps his mind busy,” Cizikas said. “He reads. He does things you would never think of. He’s trying to understand why this works this way, why that works that way. That’s just the way his brain works. I think that gives him such an advantage on the ice as well. The way he sees the play, the way that he plays the game, it keeps him young.”

The physical way Clutterbuck plays hockey came naturally to him when he was about 8 years old.

“We were playing a team from the U.S.,” Clutterbuck, from Welland, Ontario, told Newsday in January. “When we played on our side of the border, there would be contact. They came to us and I hit a kid really, really hard on the first shift. From that moment on, I was like, that was fun.”

How many more games past 1,000 Clutterbuck will play is an open question. He’s in the final season of a two-year, $3.5 million deal and he’s said he knows his career probably is coming close to the finish line.

“I think he says he’s close to the finish. I don’t think he is,” Cizikas said. “We’ll see when it actually happens.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.