May 17, 2015
Thumbs up to Canada-Russia final at WHC
A rivalry is renewed once again and TSN's Dave Hodge is all thumbs about it. Dave extends a happy thumbs up to the Canada vs. Russia gold medal final at the world championship and to the New York Rangers utility man Dominic Moore.
By Dave Hodge
Thumbs up to a Canada-Russia gold medal game at the World Hockey Championship that can boast lineups worthy of a similar meeting at the Olympics.
Sure, there are Canadians still involved in the Stanley Cup playoffs who would make Team Canada stronger. The team coached by Todd McLellan would probably make room for Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Steven Stamkos and Rick Nash if it could. But it's got Sidney Crosby, Tyler Seguin, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Jason Spezza and plenty of other NHL stars who are doing just fine and seem capable of bringing back gold medals.
Russia is able to use Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Vladimir Tarasenko to go with the KHL's biggest star, Ilya Kovalchuk. It has Sergei Bobrovsky in goal. In fact, the only Russian players still competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs are Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namesknikov, Nikita Nesterov and back-up goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy of Tampa Bay.
No excuses, then, from either side, and that's the way it should be for Canada vs. Russia.
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In these Stanley Cup playoffs, the New York Rangers always play one-goal games, Dominic Moore is usually an effective, and sometimes standout player, but he doesn't score.
A bit of a twist yesterday - the Rangers played another one-goal game, Moore was his usual effective self, but, wait a minute, this time he scored a goal, and not just any goal - it was the game winner.
He could have been the goat, for he spent two minutes in the penalty box prior to involving himself in the decisive play, and his scoring prowess consisted of positioning himself in the front of the net so he could be hit in the knee by Kevin Hayes' goalmouth pass and turn it into his first goal of these playoffs.
Dominic Moore is the epitome of the journeyman player - not good enough to stick with one team for very long, but always good enough to land a spot with another team. He started his career as a Ranger and he just might finish his NHL time as a Ranger. In between, he has been in Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Toronto, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Tampa Bay and San Jose.
New York happens to be the only place in which he has played for two full seasons. As a Ranger, he's hoping to be in the Stanley Cup final for both of those seasons, and naturally, he's hoping for a different result this time.
He has never played better. He deserves to score occasionally. For Moore, “right place, right time” can apply to New York, and to the edge of the Tampa Bay goal crease with 2:25 left in the opening game of the Eastern Conference final. Thumbs up to Dominic Moore.