I've been thinking about a conversation Cody Glass and I had a little more than a week ago.

A lot.

The Nashville Predators center's head was down. His spirit, too, it felt like.

Many of us know what that feels like.

The creases in Glass' cheeks, ripple effects from the smile he wore, were still there.

The 24-year-old was hunched in front of his locker stall at Bridgestone Arena, one eye on the white laces he tugged from his hockey skates, the other on me.

"Got a second?" I asked.

"For sure," he said. "Have a seat."

He motioned to his right, toward locker neighbor Yakov Trenin's stall.

Most of the room had cleared out.

It was Jan. 9, nearly a year after Glass had opened up about his childhood.

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He was about to return to the ice, trying to begin repairing what has been a broken season for him. He had been a healthy scratch the previous four games.

It didn't go well. Glass played almost 12 minutes. Spent four more in the penalty box during a loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

He didn't play in the next three games, but he returned to the lineup Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.

'I'm sorting things out'

I'm no mind reader but am somewhat fluent in body language.

Glass' was loud and clear while we chatted about mental health and sneakers. We talk about mental health and sneakers a fair amount, seeing as we both have our struggles with the former and share a fancy for the latter.

We talked about emotions and vulnerability and hockey. How the Predators have gone out of their way to get him the help he needs.

"I'm sorting things out," he said that morning, both eyes by then on mine.

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Glass smiled nearly the entirety of our five-minute talk. The tone in his voice, though — his posture, his words, all of it — suggested he didn't feel like it.

"It's hard," he said. "But it's one of those things they teach you, is to kind of force a smile . . . and happiness will try to come along with it."

'Emotion is good'

I imagine Cody Glass' head was down again last Saturday.

He was a healthy scratch again, the seventh time in eight games, this one a victory against the New York Islanders.

My mind raced back to our Jan. 9 conversation while I watched his team take the ice without him. Wondered what he was thinking. How he was feeling.

I think I know the answer to both.

"At the start I thought it was a sign of weakness and, I don't know . . . " Glass said of his mental health.

He paused. Deep breath.

"And people see it in a bad way," he continued. "Emotion is good. I'm an emotional person and I care a lot. That's just my personality. I can't really change it."

'All that (crap) carries with you'

Make no mistake, Glass offered none of this as an excuse for the fact he has one goal and one assist in 17 games this injury-riddled season.

For the fact that he isn't living up to the two-year, $5 million deal he signed last summer.

Nor am I offering excuses for him.

Facts are facts. The fact is he is having the worst year of his career.

In more ways than one.

Some people think of professional athletes as commodities, as disposable.

Not me.

Part of my job is not to merely point out that someone is struggling or succeeding, but to try to understand why.

And believe me, I understand Glass is struggling. My mind kept me out of work for the last half of 2022, affected my work for countless months before then.

People have since told me how much "better" I seem, how much "healthier" I look.

Truth is, that's not true. That's just my way of forcing a smile.

"It's heavy," Glass said. "All that (crap) that carries with you."

Truth is, I've just learned/am still learning/will hopefully always be learning how to deal with it better.

I think/hope/know Cody Glass is/will, too.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Predators' Cody Glass sorting through struggles on, off ice