Dominic Moore talks friendship with Marty St. Louis, love of ping pong, and importance of Smashfest

Former member of the New York Rangers, Dominic Moore, still has work to do. Namely: keeping Smashfest, the charity ping pong tournament he started back in 2011, going as awesome as ever.

July 21 was the night of the fifth edition of the annual tournament, with Patrick Eaves once again winning it all.

Initially, it may sound silly - charity golf tournaments are much more heralded - but Moore explained it perfectly in his Players' Tribune piece.

Hockey players love ping pong. Hockey players (and any professional athlete, really), are incredibly competitive people. Hockey players, therefore, love competitive ping pong. Mix that in with giving back, and you get Smashfest.

And not only is Moore into it - as is evidenced by just how many NHLers turn up for Smashfest every year - but Martin St. Louis was into it, too. Via the Tribune:

Marty and I would play set after set because a) It was fun; and b) Marty would want to keep playing until he won one. Yes, trash talk is also a big part of the action, and most of our banter usually revolved around me laughing at his "win-a-point, lose-a-point" body language, and him taking issue with my stalling tactics (if he got on too much of a roll, I’d pretend like I couldn’t find the ball under the table). We also had contrasting styles. He loved to play an aggressive topspin game that was good when his swagger was up, and I preferred to play with backspin, not because that was my game, but mostly because it drove him nuts. He just couldn’t handle it, and his body language would reflect that.

Translate that into a party-filled charity tournament, all geared towards raising money for concussion and rare cancer research - the former something of increasing importance, especially to hockey players; the latter a more personal note for Moore - and it's no wonder Smashfest has taken off.

Props to Moore for sharing the level of intensities - and props for keeping it all going.