Roger reigns among fans

NHL selects Isles supporter Farina as fan of the year

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Islanders have brought Army helicopter pilot Roger Farina great joy, and moments of comfort when he's been far from home and surrounded by danger.

Now Farina's allegiance to the team has brought him home from war in Iraq.

Farina was chosen as the league's 7th Man Award winner Wednesday. He was flown to New York from the Middle East and will serve as NHL commissioner for a day during the Stanley Cup Finals.

"I've been gloating and I'm ecstatic," he said from his in-laws' house in East Meadow, N.Y. "All my friends are calling me 'Commish.' "

The 36-year-old Long Island native beat 29 other finalists representing each of the other NHL teams. Farina proudly portrays his love of the Islanders wherever he is, even when serving the United States at his home base in Germany, or when in South Korea, Macedonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Kosovo, Kuwait or Iraq.

Farina got the news of his win while he was still far away in dangerous territory. That began a long journey -- starting with a harrowing helicopter ride that almost turned into disaster.

"I left on Friday and we flew through Baghdad and we hit some bad weather so we had to turn around. I was kind of bummed at that point," he said just an hour after arriving in New York. "Then one of the hydraulic lines ruptured and there was hydraulic fluid all over the place so we had to put it down in some muddy little field someplace in Iraq."

Eventually the 30-hour trip got him from Iraq to Kuwait and then to Germany. He spent a few days there before coming all the way home.

Farina has been asking for time off recently to pursue other job possibilities in the Washington, D.C., area. He will take care of interviewing and his celebrity responsibilities while at home.

"I don't know if the professional thing alone would've gotten me home or if this NHL thing would've gotten me home, but I think the combination of the two of them definitely got me home," he said.

He will drop the ceremonial first puck of the finals on Tuesday before Game 1, either in New Jersey or Ottawa. Either place is fine with him.

"If Jersey wins that's good because they're sort of the hometown team. If Ottawa wins, that's where my wife is from," he said.

Farina stood out above the rest for his dedication to the Islanders even while fighting in the war. While deployed in the combat zones of Kuwait and Iraq, Farina was decked out in his Islanders jersey.

It was there that he found out that he was the Islanders' top fan, an honor that was overwhelming in itself.

"I was in the middle of the chow line and I screamed," he said. "This was right in the middle of the war, and that's not something you want to do because people are on edge. Whenever you scream like that people are going for their masks."

He maintains an Islanders Room painted in the team colors. It features Islanders uniforms, posters, yearbooks, hockey sticks, game pucks and bobbleheads. His daughters have the middle names Nystrom and Gillies, named after former Islanders stars Bob Nystrom and Clark Gillies who won four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980-83.

"Roger's dedication and loyalty reflect our fans' passion for, and connection to, our game," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "He is the embodiment of the NHL."

Farina arranges his leave from the Army around the Islanders' schedule and attends games -- home and away -- during that time. When he was last home in January, he and his Canadian wife were making plans to help her complete applications for U.S. citizenship.

In order to finish the process in New York, they would have to wait until May to get an interview. But one was available in Baltimore in January, and as luck would have it, the Islanders were in the area to play the Washington Capitals.

"It was destiny," he said. "Of course my wife got her citizenship that day but I don't know which one was more important."

Farina plans his overseas work schedule so he can listen to Internet broadcasts of Islanders games, no matter what time they are on. That wasn't possible when he was in Iraq and Kuwait, but he relied on 600 fellow Islanders fans to send him care packages with updates.

Also, a cell phone with Internet access provided him with snippets of news.

Farina was selected by a panel made up of hockey analyst John Davidson; ABC announcer John Saunders; ESPN announcer Linda Cohn; TSN hockey analyst Pierre McGuire; entertainer Denis Leary; and Bettman.

 

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