There seems to be a different hero every night, or day, around the Rangers, and this time it was Dominic Moore, as towering a symbol of inner strength and courage as you get in sports.
For 57 ¹/₂ minutes, Henrik Lundqvist found himself eyeball to eyeball with Big Ben Bishop, and the Lightning’s inexperienced playoff goaltender wasn’t blinking.
Until Dominic Moore made him blink, made the Lightning — 2-1 Game 1 losers — blink.
At this time of year, Dominic Moore has a habit of making goaltenders blink.
Kevin Hayes secured the puck in the left corner with his amazing reach and slid it in front of the net. It ricocheted off Dominic Moore’s right leg and past the shell-shocked Bishop, and the Garden erupted.
“It hit me in the shin pad,” Moore said.
Just shin, baby!
“I fired it in front and Dom was there,” Hayes said.
The bigger surprise was that it was the first goal of these hard-to-score playoffs for Moore, a player known for playing big in the big games (see Game 6, 2014 Eastern Conference final against Montreal).
“I enjoy this time of year, enjoy playing at this time of year,” Moore said. “I think all of us in this room relish playing in these games, and if you’re having fun, that’s a good thing.”
Of course he was wearing the Broadway hat while standing at his locker.
“This time of the year, the way he plays, he becomes even more important,” Martin St. Louis said. “He’s a guy that can really grind it out and be tough to play against. He brings a lot of pucks to the net and protects the puck really well. I’ve had a chance to play with him in Tampa in the playoffs. This is the kind of play we need from everyone, but I’m glad today he gets rewarded. He deserves that.”
Only moments earlier, Moore had left the penalty box for tripping Anton Stralman.
“It was a great job on the kill, an important kill there,” Moore said.
The Rangers had squandered a 3-on-1 opportunity — Moore had been called offside earlier on a breakaway — and were life-and-death with the Lightning and facing overtime again mostly because of Bishop.
“He’s a big part of a lot of situations,” Marc Staal said. “He takes a lot of draws, penalty kill, and with Zucc [Mats Zuccarello], we need to get into more situations where he’s counted upon offensively. … In big moments, he always finds a way to make a great play when we need it. I said before, it must be in his DNA or something. He finds a way.”
Derek Stepan, in the right spot at the right time yet again to break the 0-0 tie, knows a big-game player when he sees one.
“It seems to be his favorite time of the year and he’s able to play big hockey for us,” Stepan said.
You win a Stanley Cup with the Messiers and the Lundqvists. You also win them with the Matteaus and the Moores.
“He just kinda takes his role as a challenge and kinda accepts that third- and fourth-line goal, and he’s really good at it,” Hayes said. “He’s great on faceoffs, he’s great defensively. … He kinda slides under the radar offensively, but [today] he was rewarded with a big goal. You can learn a lot from him. He’s a low-key guy that just kinda takes his lunch pail to work every day and does what he has to do and gets out of here.”
“He’s just one of those guys, nothing really fazes him,” Carl Hagelin said. “It doesn’t matter how big of a game it is, he’s still gonna play the same way. He doesn’t get tentative. He’s well-conditioned too, I think that helps. Late in the season, that’s when he plays his best hockey.”
Moore has played on nine teams. He is 34. He treasures these playoffs as he chases that elusive Stanley Cup. Each of his last three playoff goals have been game-winners.
“For me, it’s the fourth time in the last five years, and the one year that it didn’t happen, I didn’t really play the full playoffs [in 2012 with San Jose],” Moore said. “I don’t take lightly being in these games and appreciate the opportunity every time I step on the ice and enjoy it.”
He deserves to enjoy every second of it. There isn’t anyone who follows the Rangers, there isn’t anyone in and around the Rangers who shouldn’t root for Dominic Moore, a little more than two years after losing his wife, Katie, to liver cancer at age 32.
“He’s been through a lot in his life, both as a hockey player and as a person,” Hagelin said. “We all know that. I just like the way he carries himself every day. He’s a very professional player. He takes care of his body. He’s always bringing it.”
Dominic Moore’s triumph over tragedy is getting back up off the deck the way he has and returning to the game he loves and left for the 2012-13 season to be by her side when it mattered at the heartbreaking end.
“He’s a very smart guy, he knows a lot of stuff about life, and he lives a great life,” Hayes said. “He’s just a kind of a guy you look up to pretty much, how you want to exemplify people, how you want to be remembered, and he’s good at that.”
He’s good at providing inspiration. Ask another Ranger who is.
“Personally, he had gone through some tough times, obviously,” St. Louis said. “You see him in a happy place right now.”
Moore was there for St. Louis when he lost his mother last spring.
“He’s a contagious individual,” St. Louis said. “He always has got a positive outlook on life. For me, Dom was a guy I could lean on, especially last year, what I went through. I’m glad today he gets rewarded. He deserved that.”
Yes, he does.
“A lot of people think you’re a success if you beat cancer, or you survive or whatever,” Moore said last spring. “That’s kind of the way we work in sports too — either you’re a winner or you’re not. I wanted to make sure she knew that she’s a winner.”
She knew he was, too.