Islanders owner delivers playoff tickets to youngster who recently lost father

The 2018-19 campaign was a memorable one for the New York Islanders.

After losing John Tavares — their captain and one of the team’s top scorers — last summer, expectations were low entering the season. The Islanders didn’t seem to care, though.

A team approach to offence combined with Barry Trotz’s defence-first system and spectacular play by their goaltenders Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss, both of whom finished top-five in the league in both goals-against average and save percentage, earned New York the second seed in the Metropolitan Division.

A few days before Game 1 of their first round clash with the Pittsburgh Penguins, team owner Jon Ledecky ventured around Long Island to spread the joy of his team’s accomplishment with some of its most deserving fans.

Ledecky handed out a number of free tickets on Monday, but of all of his deliveries his interaction with 11-year-old Peyton Wilson of Ronkonkoma, New York, may have been the most powerful.

Wilson, an enormous fan of the Islanders, recently had his father pass away.

Ledecky also presented tickets to a number of teens on Long Island battling a variety of illnesses. He hopes that attending an Islanders postseason game will help distract them from the tough times they’re going through.

“To be able to take playoff tickets and give them to people who truly need them, can’t afford them or have been through personal hardship is a wonderful thing for the team to do,” he told the Islanders website, according to Pat Pickens of NHL.com. “… I had a wonderful day meeting all these terrific people, and we’re so excited to host everyone for the first game of the playoffs.”

New York will take on Pittsburgh in Game 1 of their first round clash at Nassau Coliseum on Wednesday night.

More hockey coverage on Yahoo Sports