A Difficult Journey to Triumph

Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

-Author Unknown

We watch professional athletes play sports on a daily basis, whether it’s baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, soccer or tennis. We cheer on our favorite players and our favorite teams. We cry when our team loses, we cheer when our team wins. We feel the heartache when our teams were so close and we revel in the joy when our team wins it all. We ask for trades, we analyze moves, we beg for new coaches and players as if they were trading cards. But behind every groan of frustration and every shout of approval we give, another person, or persons, is responsible for that emotion. Sometimes we forget that person is also human and they go through the same tribulations we do.

The date was January 6, 2013 and the NHL owners and players had reached a tentative deal for a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement. Excitement brewed with NHL players as a new season was now only weeks away. Free agent Dominic Moore, though, was not one of the players excited for the upcoming season. Moore's mind wasn't with hockey. He had left his teammates in San Jose, the previous season, to tend to his ailing wife. But her health continued failing as she battled liver cancer. By the time the deal was ratified a few days later Moore's wife, Katie, had passed away. Moore decided it would be best for him to sit out that shortened season.

Many athletes tell us they do the best healing when they’re doing what they love to do. In this case, though, Moore couldn’t do that. Healing wouldn’t take place on the ice for him. He needed time away. In July of 2013 he and the New York Rangers, the team who drafted him 10 years earlier, agreed on a deal to bring him back to the Blueshirts. It was a mostly unremarkable season for Moore, who picked up 18 points in 73 games, for the Rangers. His moment was coming, though. It’s often said that these things have a way of working themselves out. Tragedy oftentimes turns into triumph and Moore was badly in need of that triumph and today he finds himself four wins away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup because his moment came.

The Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens battled through five tough games of hockey. Each team lost players due to injury. Each team lost players due to penalty. Neither team was 100% by the time game six arrived but both teams played some of their best hockey of the postseason. The Rangers defense suffocated the Habs offense and replacement goaltender Dustin Tokarski was almost perfect, in fact, he was perfect against everyone except for Moore. With time ticking down in the second period Brian Boyle found Moore cutting in front of the net. A perfect pass and a perfect shot later, the Rangers had a one to zero lead. They wouldn’t need anything else. How true it is that these things have a way of working themselves out.

In January of 2013 Moore was going through perhaps the most difficult time in his life. Less than 18 months later, in the town where his career began, he scored the biggest goal of his life and sent his team to the finals. He knows, and the Rangers know, the job isn’t complete yet. They’re four wins from completing the ultimate goal.

The journey hasn’t been easy for Dominic Moore. Four more wins, though, and maybe it will have been worth it.

For more information about Dominic and Katie Moore or to donate please visit www.katiemoore.org

My Growing Passion for Hockey

My mindset toward the NHL has always been, at best, apathy. In my house baseball ruled sports, followed by basketball and football and somewhere down the road was hockey. I chose to root for the New York Rangers because I lived in New York and didn’t have an allegiance to anyone else. The truth is, though, that I didn’t really care about anything hockey. That mindset was changed because of one game; game seven of the 2001 Stanley Cup finals.

Without looking it up, I couldn’t tell you who played or who even won the Stanley Cup in 2001. The only reason I remember that it was 2001 is because I watched the game with my grandfather in a hotel lobby because we were visiting my cousin to celebrate his graduation. It was after that game that I became a fan of the sport of hockey. I watched the game, completely entranced in the action and emotion, with the biggest sports fan I’d ever known. After the game, I remember thinking that I’d never seen two teams play with such intensity and I loved every second of it.

Later that same year the New York Yankees lost game seven of the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. While baseball is my favorite sport that game didn’t compare to one I’d watched months earlier without a rooting interest. Following the Stanley Cup finals in 2001 I began to pay attention to hockey and I would always see how the Rangers were doing in the standings. I would always try to catch game sevens in the playoffs because I loved the emotion from the players. But I still didn’t find hockey interesting enough to watch during the regular season.

When I made my decision to go to Plattsburgh State University, it had nothing to do with sports. The school was a Division-III NCAA program and didn’t get any national coverage but we had a great hockey program and I loved going to the games. I was crammed into the seats during the 2007-2008 SUNYAC championship when Plattsburgh’s men’s team won the conference. The little college town erupted that night and my hockey fandom grew a little bit more.

Following college I attended many minor league hockey games in Albany, NY. I watched the Albany River Rats and then the Albany Devils play many games at the Times Union Center and got the opportunity to stand right outside the ice. I loved watching the puck smash in front of the glass right in front of me. I loved feeling the boards rattle when players were checked where I was standing. I loved the speed of the game; the hard shots and the subsequent quick saves or fast goals fascinated me.

Little by little I became a bigger and bigger fan. Then during the 2011-2012 season the Rangers earned the first seed in the playoffs and made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the New Jersey Devils. That’s when I became hooked. Being so close and failing seemed like a travesty. The next season I attended my first NHL game where the Rangers beat the Capitals in DC. Then I went to game one of the Conference Quarterfinals where the Rangers lost 1-0 in overtime to the Capitals. Even though my team lost, the atmosphere in the Verizon Center that day gave me goose bumps. I loved it.

Now the Rangers are back in the Conference Finals and I’m so excited to watch them play. While I’ll always think baseball is the greatest sport in the world, there is no better sporting event to witness in person than a hockey game and there is no better sporting event to watch at home than a game seven in the NHL.

Death brings Life to the Rangers

The venue was Madison Square Garden on Mother’s day. Martin St. Louis’s had been uninspiring since joining the Rangers; in 19 regular season games he tallied one goal and seven assists. Then the playoffs came and St. Louis started with a bang with two goals and five points in the first three games. But then it was back to much of what had become the norm, zero goals and only one point for the next nine Rangers contests and that wasn’t the worst that happened to St. Louis. In the meantime his mother had unexpectedly passed away and all of a sudden all those scoreless games didn’t mean so much to St. Louis.

The Rangers traded their team captain to acquire St. Louis from the Tampa Bay Lightning. St. Louis had been known for his offensive prowess and was coming off a year that he led the NHL in points. With their goaltending situation secured for years to come and a strong defense, the Rangers knew the only way to the Stanley Cup was to add offense. St. Louis was supposed to be that last link to Lord Stanley. But he labored through a difficult adjustment with the Rangers. His pucks couldn’t find the net and Rangers fans were becoming irritated with his lack of offense.

A strong start to the playoffs for St. Louis gave fans hope that he was coming out of his funk but the notion was quickly squashed. St. Louis went through the next eight games with only one point from an assist and once again fans began voicing their displeasure with St. Louis’s play. St. Louis couldn’t have been happy about his play either but then in an instant, suddenly his play seemed to matter very little. After he learned of his mother’s abrupt death he flew home to Montreal to be with his family and the Rangers were left to wonder if he would be back for game five facing possible elimination. Under the circumstances no one would have blamed him for not playing.

After speaking with his dad and deciding that his mother would have wanted him to play, St. Louis headed back to Pittsburgh to help his team take on the Penguins and elimination. They conquered both that day winning five to one. The Rangers had scored two goals the previous three games in the series and were showing no urgency on the ice. Then, with the season on the line and a renewed determination, they destroyed the Penguins in Pittsburgh. St. Louis didn’t score in the game but his presence in the locker-room meant more than any point could have for his teammates. He hadn’t been with the team long but that day his commitment to his team proved he had become a New York Ranger.

Game six was at home on Mother’s Day and St. Louis was playing just days after his mother’s passing. The MSG crowd started chanting his name and he promptly replied to the cheers by being in the right place at the right time. At 3 minutes and 34 seconds into the game a Derek Stepan blocked shot ricocheted off St. Louis’s leg and bounced into the goal and the Rangers took a lead they would never relinquish. The Rangers won the game three to one and once again staved off elimination and sent the series back to Pittsburgh where they’ve already won twice in the series.

The Rangers are now one win away from making an improbable comeback a reality. They were down three games to one and were showing no signs of life. In an unfortunate twist of irony a death in their family may have given them that breath of life they’ve needed. They’ve rallied around a teammate that is hurting and are only one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals and one step closer to the ultimate goal, the Stanley Cup.