Dominic Moore is an unsung hero

36 years old. Fourth line forward. Career -23 rating. Sounds like a trash player right? Wrong. Dominic Moore has been anything but a trash player this season.

Look at the Bruins roster. Look at their numbers. Better yet, watch them play. You’ll see Moore is a quality player and a key piece of this Bruins team this season — even more than anyone would have thought.

Through 34 games, he had eight goals and four assists, which is 12 points for those who don’t like math. His rating is a plus five. Yes, a fourth line guy has a positive rating. Oh, and then his goals to shot percentage — 21.1 percent — is astronomically high.

That’s slightly better than David Pastrnak (20.4 percent), and they’re the only guys on the squad who have a rate higher than ten percent. It’s not a rate that’s really sustainable or anything, three times as high as his career average just about, but no one’s complaining right now, so there’s that. It’s strange. But they’ll take it.

Here’s another stat: he’s won 55.2 percent of his face lifts. That’s the second best on the team — second only to Patrice Bergeron. So yeah, Moore has been quite the impact player — as odd as that may seem.

Let’s be honest, would you have believed it if you heard Moore was going to be the Bruins biggest positive surprise and Jimmy Hayes would be the biggest negative surprise? Probably not. But hey, at least someone stepped up. It definitely wasn’t going to be Zac Rinaldo. That’s for sure.

One of the few guys to ever be suspended in the NHL and AHL at the same time.

If the Bruins could get like 12 more of this guy, they definitely would. Nothing wrong with having old guys overachieve. It’s like the exact opposite of what happens every time the Sox bring in an old guy which isn’t a bad thing. Not at all.