It was an absolute power play.
A 12-year-old Long Island hockey player who lost his varsity star brother to a rare heart condition was given the day of a lifetime by the Islanders, as he skated to center ice ahead of Saturday’s 3-0 loss against the Senators.
“I was really nervous at first,” Massapequa’s Cole Kasin admitted to The Post after fist-bumping Bo Horvat on the blue line during the national anthem.
“Then I got out there, and it was crazy,” added the passionate little Isles fan with blue and orange braces.
Cole’s older brother, Connor Kasin, was a 17-year-old Chiefs defenseman and fellow Isles fanatic, known as a hard-hitting yet overly kind teen whose 2024 death rocked the hockey world.
“He would have been so jealous,” Cole said of cruising the frozen surface at UBS Arena.
Connor passed away during the intermission of a charity game due to an obscure case of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.
The cause of his undetected abnormal heartbeat never showed up in a physical.
Kasin’s family responded by turning pain into purpose and launched a foundation in Connor’s name. A major goal is to make potentially life-saving EKGs standard in scholastic sports to prevent families from suffering similar tragedies.
A February pilot program to screen all of Massapequa’s hockey players was so successful that the entire school, not just its athletes, will receive EKG exams May 16 due to popular demand from parents.
Along with Cole’s special skate with the big shots — he takes after his brother, playing defense for Massapequa’s middle school team — 50/50 raffle proceeds went to the Connor Kasin Memorial Foundation to continue its nationwide work.
Seeing the Islanders and Chiefs team up would have been a dream come true for Connor.
“He was always wearing Islanders stuff. If it wasn’t Chiefs stuff, it was Islander stuff,” said Bobby Foran, a close friend of Connor and a foundation member helping collect donations.
“I’m sure he’d be loving this right now.”
Nearly $21,000 was raised before the game’s start, and the total shot up to a whopping $47,599 by the third period drawing.
“I was told that $15,000 is a good number before puck drop,” said their dad, Craig Kasin, who was overwhelmed by the especially high figures.
He, along with his wife Mary and tons of local hockey families — so many people volunteered that they had to start turning some down — were out on the concourse fervently ringing cowbells to get fans to contribute to the pot.
“This is just unbelievable, knowing he made such a difference,” added Craig, who loves the team as much as his kids do.
The Islanders have held the Kasin family close since Connor, who modeled his physical play after Matt Martin, passed away.
Craig said the best day of his boy’s life was meeting and getting a signed puck from owner Jon Ledecky after the Islanders’ epic Game 6 overtime win over the Lightning in the 2021 Eastern Conference finals.
Ledecky attended Connor’s service.
Cole has taken everything in stride and remains cheerful both on and off the ice as he follows in Connor’s footsteps, wearing his number 37 in the process.
“I’m lucky enough to have been able to coach someone like Cole,” said Chiefs middle school coach Brett Ansbacher, who came to the game with more than a dozen of Cole’s close buddies.
“He has such an amazing attitude and smile on his face throughout.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
