NHL

After losing wife to cancer, taking year off, Moore glad to be back with Rangers

The Katie Moore Foundation, founded and named in memory of Rangers’ center Dominic Moore’s wife, who passed away on Jan. 7 at age 32 with a rare form of liver cancer, is dedicated to helping patients and families with rare cancers through research, advocacy and community.

The Foundation’s credo, as stated on its http://www.katiemoore.org website, is “One Day at a Time.”

It is the way Dominic Moore, who on July 5 signed a one-year free agent contract with the Rangers after sitting out last season, lives his life.

“I don’t try to get ahead of myself,” Moore said on a conference call yesterday in an attempt to explain the thought process that brought him back to the NHL and the organization with which he started his pro career a decade ago. “If there is one thing this process has taught me, it’s to take one day at a time, and that’s what I’ve been doing.

“I don’t worry about what could happen too far down the road. It’s been good for me not to focus on what I can’t control.”

Dominic and Katie met as Harvard undergrads at the beginning of the millennium. They were married on July 3, 2010. She was diagnosed in the late spring of 2012 with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma.

Then a member of the Sharks, Moore took a leave of absence during the playoffs to be at his wife’s side following surgery before missing last season in the aftermath of her passing on the day after the lockout was settled.

Moore, who played one full season with the Blueshirts in 2005-06 before he was sent to Pittsburgh via Nashville in a three-way trade that would lead to a nine-team odyssey around the league, had been talking to the Rangers about returning as a free agent last year.

When asked what the last year has been like for him, the center, who will turn 33 next month, said, “That’s a question that could probably take a lifetime to answer.

“The ups and downs over the course of dealing with the disease and what we went through, that’s a lot to try and describe in one simple answer,” he said. “I’m grateful for the time we had; those months were the most special months we had with each other or that anyone could possibly ask for despite it being the most difficult few months anyone could deal with.”

Moore, who is projected to be the Rangers’ fourth-line center, a role he had his first time around on Broadway on the popular, effective and energetic HMO Line with Ryan Hollweg and Jed Ortmeyer, said the decision to sit out last season, “was very difficult … but at the same time, definitely the right decision.

“The months after that gave me the chance to regroup and chance to clear my head,” said Moore, who spent the season at his home in Boston working out, training with the Harvard tennis team, and working on the foundation. “I needed some time to re-organize.”

Henrik Lundqvist is the lone Ranger remaining from the 2005-06 squad. Moore actually pre-dates The King as a Blueshirt, making his debut on Nov. 1, 2003 in a three-assist game in Montreal that marked the first of his five games that season. Moore has since circled the NHL globe, but he always has considered New York his hockey home.

“No doubt, coming back to New York is what I wanted to happen. It was my first choice for a variety of reasons,” he said. “I’ve always been drawn back there. I’m grateful that it’s come to fruition.”

* The Katie Moore Foundation is co-hosting a charity ping pong event in Toronto on July 25. Information about the event is available at www.smashfest.ca.