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