Dominik Hašek
Dominik Hašek is a Czech former ice hockey player who was a goaltender for 16 seasons in the National Hockey League, mostly for the Buffalo Sabres. Widely regarded as one of the best goaltenders in history, Hašek also played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and Ottawa Senators in his NHL career before finishing his career in Europe. While in Buffalo, he became one of the league's finest goaltenders, earning him the nickname "The Dominator". His strong play has been credited with establishing European goaltenders in a league previously dominated by North Americans. He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, both with the Red Wings, winning his first one as the starting goaltender in his first season with the Wings and his second one as the backup in his last NHL season.
Hašek was one of the league's most successful goaltenders of the 1990s and early 2000s. From 1993 to 2001, he won six Vezina Trophies, the most under the award's current system of voting for the best individual goaltender. In 1998 he won his second consecutive Hart Memorial Trophy, becoming the first goaltender to win the award multiple times. During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he led the Czech national ice hockey team to its first and only Olympic gold medal. The feat made him a popular figure in his home country and prompted hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to call him "the best player in the game". While with the Red Wings in 2002, Hašek became the first European-trained starting goaltender to win the Stanley Cup. In the process, he set a record for shutouts in a postseason year.
Hašek was considered an unorthodox goaltender, with a distinct style that led to him being labeled as a "flopper". He was best known for his concentration, foot speed, flexibility, and unconventional saves, such as covering the puck with his blocker rather than his trapper. Hašek holds the record for highest NHL career save percentage and is seventh in goals against average. He also has the third-highest NHL single-season save percentage, behind Tim Thomas in 2010–11 and Brian Elliott's 0.940 in 2011–12. Hašek is the only goalie to face the most shots per 60 minutes and have the highest save percentage in the same season, which he achieved twice playing for the Sabres.
At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest active goaltender in the NHL at 43, and the second-oldest active player in the league after Red Wings teammate Chris Chelios, who was 46. Hašek announced his retirement on 9 June 2008, but on 21 April 2009, he announced a comeback to professional hockey and signed a contract with HC Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga. On 7 June 2010, he signed with Spartak Moscow of the KHL and played the last season of his career with this team. Hašek announced his second retirement on 9 October 2012. Hašek was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on 17 November 2014. He is also a member of the Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and the IIHF Hall of Fame. His number was retired by the Buffalo Sabres and HC Pardubice. In 2017, he was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
Early life
Hašek was born Dominik Kaštánek to Alois and Marie. When he was two his parents divorced, and Marie later married Jan Hašek, who adopted Hašek. Hašek started playing hockey at the age of six in his native Czechoslovakia. As he explains:In 1980, Hašek joined the top hockey league in the country, the Czechoslovak Extraliga, with his hometown team, HC Pardubice. He became the youngest hockey player in history to play at the professional level at age 16. He helped to win two league titles in 1987 and 1989. The next year, he was conscripted in the Czechoslovak Army and played for an army team Dukla Jihlava. After making his mark and eventually playing for the Czechoslovak national team, Hašek entered the NHL draft and was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1983. At the time, NHL teams were wary of drafting players from behind the Iron Curtain who were often barred from playing in NHL by their countries. Consequently, Hašek was picked in the 10th round and was the 17th goaltender selected. Hašek did not even know he had been drafted until several months later.
Hašek played on the Czechoslovakia team in the 1988 Winter Olympics, featuring in games against Finland and Canada as the team finished sixth overall.
Until 1990, Hašek played in his native Czechoslovakia for HC Pardubice and Dukla Jihlava. He won the Golden Hockey Stick, given to the most valuable player in the Extraliga, in 1987, 1989 and 1990. He was named the Extraliga's Goaltender of the Year for four consecutive years from 1986 through 1990. His American career began with the Indianapolis Ice of the International Hockey League, where he played parts of two seasons. His NHL debut with the Blackhawks finally came in the 1990–91 season, seven years after the 1983 NHL Entry Draft.
NHL career
Chicago Blackhawks (1990–1992)
In Chicago, Hašek spent time as the backup to Ed Belfour, and played only 25 games over two seasons with the Blackhawks, splitting time between the Blackhawks and the Indianapolis Ice of the IHL. On 6 November 1990, wearing the number 34, Hašek made his first NHL start in a 1–1 tie against the Hartford Whalers.His first victory came on 8 March 1991, by a score of 5–3 over the Buffalo Sabres, and on 9 January 1992, he recorded his first shutout in a 2–0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs. During this time with the Blackhawks, his goaltending coach was Vladislav Tretiak, who was selected in the 1983 draft but was barred from playing in the NHL by the Soviet government. Hašek appeared in game 4 of the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, after Belfour allowed two goals on four shots in the opening 6:33, and had 21 saves. Although the Penguins won and clinched the Stanley Cup, Hašek's performance attracted the attention of the Sabres, who had considered trading for him earlier that season.
Buffalo Sabres (1992–2001)
After the Stanley Cup Finals appearance, Chicago decided to stay with Belfour and Jimmy Waite, and traded Hašek to the Buffalo Sabres on August 7, 1992, for goaltender Stéphane Beauregard and future considerations, which later materialized into a draft pick used to obtain Éric Dazé. In Buffalo, wearing number 39, he was initially the backup goaltender, playing behind Grant Fuhr. When Fuhr was injured partway through the 1993–94 season, Hašek was elevated to starter and soon developed into a top-tier goaltender. In 1994, he won his first Vezina Trophy, was runner-up for the Hart Memorial Trophy and shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with Fuhr. Hašek played 58 games with a league-best 1.95 goals against average, seven shutouts, and a.930 save percentage. He followed this feat by again winning the Vezina Trophy and again placing as a Hart finalist in 1994–95.Hašek's success in the 1996–97 season was overshadowed by a conflict with then-head coach Ted Nolan. The conflict created a tense, clique-like atmosphere in the Sabres' clubhouse.
In Game 3 of the Sabres' best-of-seven first-round playoff series against the Ottawa Senators, Hašek removed himself in the second period and was replaced by Steve Shields. Hašek suffered a mild sprain of his right MCL, and the team doctor pronounced him day-to-day. However, the media and some teammates speculated Hašek was using his injury to bail out on the team. One such individual was Buffalo News columnist Jim Kelley, who wrote a column detailing Hašek's injury and his conflict with Nolan, and questioning the goaltender's mental toughness. When Kelley approached Hašek for an interview after a loss in Game 5, Hašek physically attacked the journalist and received a three-game suspension and a $10,000 fine as a result of the incident. With Shields in goal, the Sabres fought back against the Senators and took the series in seven games. However, Hašek did not play in the following series against the Philadelphia Flyers, which Buffalo lost in five games.
Though general manager John Muckler was named Executive of the Year, he was fired for his constant feuding with Nolan. Hašek, who sided with Muckler, stated in an interview during the 1997 NHL Awards ceremony that the team would benefit from replacing Nolan.
Although Nolan won the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach and was popular with Sabres fans, new general manager Darcy Regier only offered him a one-year contract extension. Nolan rejected the offer on the grounds that it was too short and parted ways with the franchise. This upset many fans, who blamed Nolan's departure on Hašek's alleged attempt to get rid of him.
For the first six weeks of the next season he was booed so vigorously that arena workers would play tapes of a crowd cheering to help balance it out.
As the season progressed, the booing of Hašek ceased, as he posted a league-record seven shutouts in December and continued to play at an elite level. He won the Vezina Trophy again, as well as the Lester B. Pearson Award and the Hart Trophy as league MVP. He became one of the few goaltenders in NHL history to win the Hart, alongside Connor Hellebuyck, Jacques Plante, Carey Price, Chuck Rayner, Al Rollins, José Théodore and Roy Worters.
Hašek played a career-high 72 games in the 1997–98 season, and set a team record with 13 shutouts. Six of these shutouts came in December, which tied the all-time NHL record for most in one month. He again won the Lester B. Pearson Award, the Hart Trophy, and the Vezina Trophy, becoming the first goaltender in NHL history to win the Hart twice. He donated the $10,000 prize money after winning the Pearson Award in 1998 to the Variety Club of Buffalo. In the off-season he signed a three-year, $26 million deal, securing the highest goaltender salary contract at that time.
In 1998–99, Hašek averaged a career-best 1.87 GAA and.937 save percentage, capturing him his third consecutive Vezina, and fifth overall. He was also a finalist for the Hart and Pearson trophies. Though the Sabres did not have a stellar regular season and finished with the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference, they defeated the Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs en route to a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Dallas Stars. The Sabres eventually lost the series four games to two, with the decisive sixth game being one of the longest Stanley Cup playoff games in NHL history. Hašek and Ed Belfour made 50 and 53 saves, respectively, in a sudden-death triple-overtime duel that only ended when Brett Hull scored a controversial Cup-winning goal with his skate in the goal crease.
The goal was not reviewed immediately, so officials did not notice Hull's skate in the crease until minutes later. After video reviews showed Hull's position, the goal was still upheld, leaving the Sabres infuriated. Hašek commented, "Maybe was in the bathroom. Maybe he was sleeping. Maybe he doesn't know the rule." The following season, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that video replays would no longer be used to judge if players are in the crease or not, and that it would be a judgment call by the officiating crew. After the season ended, Hašek contemplated retirement because of a combination of injuries and a desire to become more involved in his family life. The announcement stunned many of his teammates, particularly Michael Peca and Jason Woolley.
In the 1999–2000 season, Hašek was hampered by a nagging groin injury. He missed forty games and failed to win a major NHL award for the first time in several years. Though he healed in time for the playoffs, the Sabres were eliminated in the first round in five games by the Flyers. In 2000–01—his final season with Buffalo—Hašek set a modern era record by collecting his sixth Vezina Trophy. He also won his second William M. Jennings Trophy. The Sabres played Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs again, where Hašek outplayed his 1998 Olympic back-up Roman Čechmánek. In the clinching sixth game, Hašek recorded a shutout against the Flyers. In the second round, the Sabres played a seven-game series against Mario Lemieux's Penguins, which culminated with the Penguins winning the final game in overtime.