It was early in Cal Clutterbuck’s first season of junior hockey, November he thinks, and his Ontario Hockey League team was returning to Toronto from a road game.
The bus dropped the players at the St. Michael’s College School Arena, their home building, and Clutterbuck’s father, Tim, picked him up to drive him to his billet home.
Struggling on the ice and homesick off it, Clutterbuck was at a crossroads.
“I kinda had a moment there where I was like, ‘I’m not sure I can do this,’ ” he said Tuesday. “Things weren’t going well. … I just kinda said, ‘I don’t think I got it.’ ”
Over a pro career in its 17th season that will reach its 1,000th game on Wednesday against the Flyers, there have been no shortage of moments in which Clutterbuck was forced to contemplate his athletic mortality.
But as he reflected ahead of a milestone for longevity, that one stuck out.
“He talked me off a ledge,” Clutterbuck said of his father. “And he said keep going, see how it works out. And I kept going.
“Things got better. And I got tougher. And just one of a series of things like that, but that was a big one for me and it’s one I remember. I’ll always remember that one.”
The 36-year-old Clutterbuck is the oldest player with the most games played on an Islanders team with one of the most veteran cores in the NHL.
He holds the league’s all-time hits record, with linemate Matt Martin the current runner-up, and the Identity Line on which they both star has carved out a forever place in Islanders lore.
Not so bad for a fourth-liner who contemplated quitting in juniors.
“Never really thought [1,000 games] was a possibility for me,” Clutterbuck said. “It wasn’t really — when I was growing up, I was like, one game was a pipe dream. And then you play 100 and you think that’s impressive.
“I wish I could’ve said I wrote it down in a notebook somewhere in 2007, but I didn’t. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
Clutterbuck would have reached the 1,000 sooner if not for a spate of injuries in recent seasons.
There was a skate cut to his wrist, a nagging shoulder issue that required season-ending surgery and a broken finger all since 2019.
No matter, his game this season has been as good as ever.
Even as the Islanders have struggled recently, Clutterbuck’s play has been one of the most consistent things on the roster. Straight-line, hard-hitting, going north.
“It’s not easy,” said Casey Cizikas, who’s centered Clutterbuck for most of the last decade and is one of his best friends. “Those are hard miles and for him to accomplish something like this, he should be extremely proud of himself. He does it every single night.”
It’s not the physical side of recovering from those injuries that has taken the biggest toll, Clutterbuck said, but the mental.
That conversation with his dad as a teenager isn’t the only time a loved one has helped him through a moment of need.
“They’ve always been there for me, my parents. Just lucky to have a good support system,” Clutterbuck said. “Obviously then my wife. We’ve been together for 13 or 14 years, so between my wife and my parents, I’ve always got someone to hash it out with. Someone to encourage me to keep going when it seems my resolve is a little low. So thankful for them.”
Clutterbuck is not always one for reflecting.
But after the Islanders beat Calgary on Saturday, he allowed himself to think on his accomplishments.
“I was sitting on the bus going back to the hotel. I had some memories come back,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit for the last couple days. But all positive. It’s a cool thing.”
Read more
