The Hockey Hall of Fame is welcoming six new members into it’s prestigious halls on Friday, November 14th, 2014. Join us here at Last Word On Sports as we take an in depth look every day at the new inductees. We conclude our series with a look at The Dominator, Dominik Hasek.
2014 HHOF Induction Profile: Dominik Hasek
Dominik Hasek’s beginnings as a goaltender started as they usually do for netminders – a team without a goalie looking for anyone to play in net. In Hasek’s case, he was a five-year-old among kids nearly twice his age, but he fell in love with the game and the rest, as they say, is history.
Of course, I would be remiss if we didn’t delve a bit deeper into that history. By 1980 and at the tender age of 16, Hasek was already playing professional hockey for his hometown team, HC Pardubice, in the Czechoslovak Extraliga and he helped them win the league championship in 1987 and 1989.
By this point, Hasek’s legend was already growing in his native land (though he was a virtual unknown in North America, even after getting drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1983), where he was named top player and top goaltender multiple times.
Long-awaited Debut
Eight years after being drafted, and two years after coming over to play in the IHL, Hasek finally made his NHL debut in 1990 with the Blackhawks. However Hasek was never anything more than insurance for Chicago, who already had Ed Belfour firmly entrenched as the starter, and he found himself traded to the Buffalo Sabres in 1992. It was a trade that may have changed hockey history, because it was in Buffalo where Hasek would terrify opposing shooters for the better part of a decade.
Domination
Telling the story of how utterly dominant Hasek was during the 1990’s to a person who never saw him play is almost impossible. At 5’10” and 165 pounds, Hasek hardly possessed an intimidating stature, and his strange flopping hybrid style was so completely unorthodox that there is no way it should have been effective.
Yet blessed with elite vision, speed of light reflexes, and an elasticity and flexibility that the league had never seen before, it didn’t matter to Hasek. He stopped pucks that nobody in their right mind ever thought could be stopped and left the top snipers in the game shaking their heads in amazement. Just when you thought the opposition had a sure-fire goal, out would shoot a blocker or a toe and the most miraculous save would be made. I know what you’re thinking, that goalies around the NHL make those kinds of saves all the time, but Hasek made them at an almost inhuman rate, night in and night out, for years. Hasek stopped the puck by any means necessary, and he did it again, and again, and again.
While some look at Hasek’s career numbers (a 2.20 goals against average, an NHL record .922 save percentage and 81 shutouts) and say he was the beneficiary of playing during the “dead puck” era, that doesn’t consider just how head-and-shoulders better he was than any other goaltender in the league at the time.
Consider, six Vezina trophies and six First Team All-Star nominations in an eight-year span. In 1997 he became one of only five (now six) goaltenders to win the Hart trophy (and the first to win it since the legendary Jaques Plante in 1962), and then followed that up with another one in 1998, becoming the only goaltender to win the Hart in consecutive seasons (not to mention joining the lofty club of players at any position to have done so). Yes, goaltending statistics and scoring in general were down league-wide during Hasek’s prime, but he was still miles ahead of the pack.
However, despite all that personal success (and putting aside a brilliant turn at the 1998 Olympics, where he single-handedly won Gold for the Czechs), team success eluded him. He took Buffalo to game six of the Stanley Cup Final in 1999, but couldn’t get past Brett Hull and the Dallas Stars. In 2001, after nine seasons with the Sabres, Hasek was on the move again, this time to Detroit.
Career Renaissance
At the time it was expected that Hasek would be able to sustain his level of play with the Red Wings, but he was also in his mid-30’s and many thought his best days were behind him. What people didn’t expect however, was how much sublime hockey Hasek had left in the tank.
Hasek would not only set a new personal best with 41 wins that first year in Detroit, but he would also finally win that last piece of hardware that had eluded him throughout his career – The Stanley Cup.
Yes, Hasek was the beneficiary of a stacked Wings squad full of future Hall of Famers, including Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan, old nemisis Hull, Igor Larionov, Chris Chelios, and the immortal Scotty Bowman behind the bench (just to name a small number of outstanding players on that team), yet Hasek played an important role himself with an incredible 1.85 goals against average, a .920 save percentage, and an outstanding six shutouts in 23 games (the second most by a goaltender in a single post-season). He also became the first European starting goaltender to lead his team to Cup.
The End
This would be the apex of Hasek’s NHL career, though it would continue for a few more seasons. Hasek continued to post elite numbers in Detroit, though injuries were starting to wear him down. In 2006, after a brief turn as an Ottawa Senator, Hasek would return to the Red Wings for two more seasons before finally retiring from the NHL in 2008. Even in his final season, at 43 years old and in the higher-scoring era following the 2005 lockout, Hasek still posted a miniscule 2.14 goals against average and five shutouts in 41 games.
He would continue to play professionally in Europe for two more seasons, with his hometown HC Pardubice and then with HC Spartak Moscow before finally retiring from the game for good in 2011 at the age of 45 and after three decades of professional hockey.
Legacy
Hasek was not just a great goalie, nor was he the greatest goalie – he was the goaltender that set the impossibly high standard of success in his era. Throughout hockey history a few names that have done the same come to mind: Plante, Terry Sawchuk, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy, and Martin Broduer.
Hasek’s contribution and pure domination of the game for such a long period of time easily places his names among those all-time greats.
Some of Hasek’s records are simply mind-boggling. Hasek is the only goaltender to finish first in both shots against per 60 minutes and save percentage in a season, and he did it twice. He holds the NHL record for most shutouts in one month when he posted an amazing six in a single month during the 1997-98 season. He stands in the top 10 in nearly every single career goaltending statistic, both regular season and playoffs.
In addition to being the first European goaltender in the modern era to lead his team to the Cup, he was also the first European goaltender to lead the league in goals against average – not to mention the fact he has played more games than any of his European crease contemporaries. Internationally, Hasek has medalled nine times in various tournaments representing the Czechs, with his Olympic Gold medal being the most prominent.
Even if we’re holding to the strictest of standards for Hall inclusion, Hasek easily surpasses those standards. Congratualations to “The Dominator”, for this well-deserved honor.
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