Islanders score with kids

Richard Tedesco

Members of the New York Islanders brought some holiday cheer to ailing youngsters at area hospitals earlier this week.

Islanders forwards Blake Comeau, John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Matt Moulson and goalkeeper Rick DiPietro visited patients at Steven and Alexandra Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park. Islanders forward Frans Nielsen, defenseman Jack Hillen and goaltender Dwayne Roloson visited patients in the children’s ward at Winthrop University Hospital.

A small group of young patients seemed awed at the presence of the hockey players, who gave them gifts and signed T-shirts, jerseys and caps for them.

“This is definitely my favorite one of all the things we do for the community. It makes you realize that hockey isn’t everything,” said Nielsen.

Young Carl Zaharia, who wore his Islanders jersey and cap, was visibly pleased to be spending time with a few of his sports heroes.

“It feels cool,” he said. “When I grow up, I want to be a hockey player.”

Zaharia’s jersey was already adorned with some autographs collected when he recently got to drop the puck at a ceremonial opening face-off of the game.

“It was fun,” he recalled. “I was nervous.”

Another young patient, Sal Maher, said it was “good” to get a hockey stick from the Islanders’ Hillen.

“We have a practice later, but this is the most important thing today,” Hillen said. “It’s great to see these kids happy.”

Seeing the children at Winthrop put Roloson in mind of his two sons, Brent, age 9, and Ron, age 7.

“For us, it’s a great honor to come here and put smiles on kids’ faces when they’re going through tough times,” Roloson said.

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