Cody Glass felt like a rowboat in an ocean.

He'd been here before

The Nashville Predators center was overwhelmed by feelings of separation from his teammates, which led to bouts of depression and anxiety while he missed 18 of his team's first 28 games this season thanks to injuries.

Ten days into this season it was his left knee. Three weeks later it was his shoulder, which he hurt four games after he returned from the knee injury.

The worst injury, though, was to his mind, something he's been through before.

"It sucks being away from the team," Glass told The Tennessean on Tuesday morning, about eight hours before he played for the first time since Dec. 29. "And having to watch the team ... go through wins and losses and not being able to help. When I was injured we were on long road trips and I was alone.

"Now that I'm back and been through all my problems, talked through them all, I feel like I'm in a better place mentally."

Glass didn't crack the scoreboard during Tuesday's 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. He played 11 minutes, 51 seconds and had four penalty minutes.

Cody Glass: 'You lose confidence after injuries'

Glass hasn't been missing games lately so much because of his physical health, but rather the toll his physical health has taken on his mental health.

Going into Tuesday the 24-year-old had been a healthy scratch for four consecutive games.

But why?

"You lose confidence after injuries and you go into games thinking, 'I don't want to get injured again,' " Glass said. "I want to keep playing but then you don't play the way you're capable of playing."

A vicious cycle.

Glass has one goal and one assist to his name in 17 games.

Not even close to the way he had envisioned himself living up to the two-year, $5 million contract he signed July 1 after posting 14 goals and 21 assists in 72 games during his first full season since being picked sixth overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Draft.

"Expectations are way higher," he said.

Cody Glass: 'The only thing that changes is my mind'

Then there's the pressure − most self-inflicted, some not.

Again, why?

Glass is the same person, the same trying-to-get-better-ever-day player the Predators thought worthy of such a contract.

"Nothing has changed," he said.

Except one thing.

"The only thing that changes is my mind," he continued. "It's funny how that thing can play tricks on you.

"You just have to have the right people around you, support. Get it out. Get rid of the baggage."

HAPPY TO BE HERE: The powerful story of Cody Glass, whose path to Nashville Predators was anything but easy

'Force a smile'

Glass said coach Andrew Brunette has been a big part of that support, along with his teammates and Vickie Woosley, the Predators' director of performance psychology and team behavioral health clinician.

"I'm thankful," Glass said. "I've lucked out being with this organization."

Glass was smiling Tuesday morning, thoughts of playing that night dancing in his cleared-up head.

He's almost always smiling.

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

"I'm sorting things out. I'm training my mind to be better."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Predators' Cody Glass has dealt with injuries, mental health