A veteran of 13 NHL campaigns, Moore displays the same competitive fire with a racquet in his hand as he did during his time on the ice.
Dominic Moore is making up for lost time on the tennis court.
Moore, a 13-year NHL veteran, was in Montreal this week to play in the Canadian Seniors Tennis Championships and he showed that his athletic talents extend beyond hockey as he reached the semifinals of the over-40 singles before losing to second-seeded Simon Tremblay-Larouche 7-6, 6-2.
Moore’s love of the game dates to his childhood when he would watch his father, Jack, compete in seniors events.
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“I played a lot in the summer but it was all hockey in the winter,” said Moore, who played alongside his older brothers Mark and Steve at Harvard.
Moore played with 10 different NHL teams and his itinerant career path reflected his reputation as a solid two-way centre. On four occasions, he moved at the trade deadline to teams hoping to find the missing piece for a playoff run.
The Canadiens were that team in 2010. They acquired Moore from the Florida Panthers for a second-round draft choice and he paid dividends in the playoffs. He scored the series-clinching goal when the eighth-seeded Canadiens beat the President’s Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs and he scored in Game 7 of the second-round win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Tampa Bay Lightning traded Moore to San Jose at the deadline in 2012 and he played three playoff games before learning that his wife, Katie, had a rare form of liver cancer. He skipped the 2012-13 season to be with his wife, who died in January 2013.
Moore returned the following season with the New York Rangers, the team that drafted him in the third round (95th overall) in 2000. He scored the only goal as the Rangers beat the Canadiens in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final to give the Rangers their first Stanley Cup final berth in 20 years. The Professional Hockey Writers Association presented him with the 2014 Bill Masterton Trophy in recognition of his perseverance and dedication to the sport.
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He retired in 2019 after finishing the season in Switzerland. He Joined ESPN as an analyst but spends most of his time at home in Boston with his wife, Mary, and their two young daughters.
Moore’s brothers had far different pro hockey experiences.
Mark Moore suffered a concussion in a collision with a teammate while playing in the minors. He was offered a tryout with the Canadiens in 2003, but he retired after he failed to get medical clearance.
Once dubbed the smartest man in hockey, Mark Moore earned a law degree from McGill and a PhD from Oxford and currently teaches law at the University of British Columbia.
Steve Moore’s career with the Colorado Avalanche ended in 2014 when he was attacked from behind by Vancouver’s Todd Bertuzzi and suffered a broken neck and a severe concussion. He filed a civil suit against Bertuzzi and the Canucks in 2006 and the case dragged on for eight years before the parties reached a multimillion-dollar settlement.
Since 2012, Dominic Moore has organized Smashfest, a charity table tennis tournament benefiting the Steve Moore Foundation, which is dedicated to prevention and treatment of concussions in sport and the Katie Moore Foundation, which assists those dealing with rare forms of cancer.
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On the tennis court, Dominic More displays the same competitive fire that marked his NHL career.
In his opening match against Olivier Taschereau, he lost the first set 6-0 and then pulled even by winning the second set 6-2. He fell behind 4-1 in the deciding set before rallying to force a tiebreaker. He trailed 5-1 in the tiebreaker, but took the next six points to win the match.
In his second round, he overpowered the third seed, former New Brunswick premier Brian Gallant, 6-1, 6-0 and he reached the semifinals by beating fifth-seeded Salomon Bendavid 6-4, 6-2.
He met his match in Tremblay-Larouche, a former University of Arkansas star who has been ranked as high as No. 8 in the International Tennis Federation senior rankings.
Playing in front of the home crowd at the Mount Royal Tennis Club, Tremblay-Larouche took control after winning a tight first set.
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The post Pat Hickey: Former Canadian Dominic Moore finds outlet on tennis court appeared first on National Post Today.
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