NHL

Apologetic Moore anxious for ban to end

John Moore surely seemed contrite, and how could he not be.

The young defenseman will not be eligible to play in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals on Wednesday, as he has to serve the second game of his two-game suspension as a result of his blind-side head shot on Canadiens forward Dale Weise in Game 5 of the conference finals.

As his teammates prepared to face the winner of Sunday night’s Game 7 of the West final between the Kings and Blackhawks, Moore only wishes he had done things differently.

“Obviously, if I could take it all back, I would,” Moore said after Sunday’s practice, the Rangers’ first day back on the ice after two days off. “The biggest thing is I hope Dale is OK, and I just have to get ready for an opportunity coming up here.”

Moore’s hit came with 9:19 left in the game, his team down, 6-4 en route to an embarrassing 7-4 loss. Although it was not deemed a late hit by the league, it was certainly a high hit, with
Moore’s elbow connecting directly with Weise’s head.

“I believe I got in front of him,” Moore said. “But obviously the onus is on me there to make sure I’m not exploiting a vulnerable opponent.”

Moore was given a five-minute major for elbowing and a match penalty. The suspension came down the following day, and the league cited Weise’s injury — which a source told The Post was presented as a concussion before the hearing, and then Montreal coach Michel Therrien denied was a head injury before Weise was unable to play Game 6.

The two-game ban equaled what was given to Montreal forward Brandon Prust for his late hit on Derek Stepan in Game 3, a hit that broke Stepan’s jaw.

“I don’t really think it really matters what I think,” Moore said about the suspension length. “I’ll take it and deal with it for now. Obviously, it wasn’t my intention to injure someone, I respect my opponents and I respect this game. It definitely wasn’t what I was trying to do there.”

Moore’s absence gave coach Alain Vigneault the chance to insert Raphael Diaz back into the lineup for his third game of the postseason. Another offensively inclined defenseman, the right-handed Diaz got some time on the power play and played a solid game on the left side of the third pair next to Kevin Klein.

“Of course it’s really exciting,” Diaz said. “I think [the goal was] to keep my plays and my game simple. Simple stuff, I think this is important. It was a huge game and I think the whole team showed character and played a really, really good game.”

Diaz has had a very interesting year, getting traded from Montreal to Vancouver, and then from Vancouver to New York, all sandwiched around a trip the Sochi Olympics as a member of team Switzerland.

“Yea, it was a lot of travel for me,” Diaz said. “But as a player, it’s your dream to play in the Stanley Cup final, and to be a team like that, it’s unbelievable. It’s a dream.”