How former Rangers star welcomed Dominic Moore to NHL with ‘decent clothes’
When Dominic Moore arrived on Broadway for a five-game cameo as a rookie with the New York Rangers in November of 2003, he looked the part of a future NHL regular on the ice. However, away from the rink, future Hockey Hall of Famer Eric Lindros decided Moore needed some help actually looking big league.
“I remember, first year, just sitting in the training room after practice and I thought I was dressed as well as I could be,” Moore told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast. “But Eric Lindros came into the training room and said ‘Hey, what are you doing this afternoon?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, nothing.’ I was still living in the hotel at that point, and he said, ‘OK, you’re going to come with me into the city and we’re going to go shopping. You need to get some decent clothes!'”
Moore was 23 at the time, months removed from closing out an excellent collegiate career at Harvard, and with just handful of pro games under his belt with Hartford of the American Hockey League.
Really, what was he to do other than follow the former No. 1 overall pick and 1995 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP into Manhattan for a bit of a shopping education?
“i think I had like an Old Navy fleece on that I had worn all throughout college. That was my wardrobe. I didn’t know anything different. I think I had one pair of pants that I think got worn pretty much every day,” Moore said through a smile. “So, he took me downtown. We went to some kind of designer, backdoor places where there were some kind of boutique designers, and bought an overpriced tee shirt and pair of jeans, and I was looking much more fashionable the next day!”
The clothes aren’t what Moore remembers most about that experience, however.
“Just for a veteran and Hall of Famer to take the time to do that was pretty awesome.”
Wearing Rangers jersey as rookie didn’t ‘seem real’ for Dominic Moore back in 2003
It likely was already in Moore’s DNA to one day become a respected veteran leader himself, with the Rangers and nine other teams he played for in a 13-year NHL career that spanned 897 regular-season games and another 101 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But what Lindros did that day certainly made an impression on Moore, even if the memory still makes him chuckle.
On the ice, Moore had quite the NHL debut. He picked up three assists on Nov. 1, 2003 against the Montreal Canadiens, even though he only played 11 shifts and logged 7:38 TOI. That’s what you call an efficient performance.
However, that’s not what Moore chooses to focus on when recalling his debut.
“My first game was in Montreal. It was a memorable game for lost of reasons,” Moore shared. “Obviously, the history that’s in that building in Montreal, and to be able to put on the Rangers jersey, two historic teams going at it, teams that you grew up admiring, knowing the history of both of those teams and the great players that’ve come across the decades wearing those jerseys. To put on that kind of jersey doesn’t even seem real.”
He played four more games and was scoreless, before being sent back to the minors. After the lockout wiped out the 2003-04 season, Moore was a lineup regular, playing all 82 games, in 2004-05. Coupled with his successful return to the organization years later, Moore is one of the best third-round draft picks in Rangers history.
Many more highlights were to come, not only during that second run years later on Broadway, but throughout his different stops in the NHL. Yet Moore never forgot the impression Lindros made on that young player trying to fit in with the Rangers at the start of his NHL journey.
Moore crosses paths with the Rangers again this weekend, this time in Salt Lake City in his role as part of the Utah Mammoth broadcast team. The Rangers close out their three-game road trip against the Mammoth on Saturday night.
