Dominik Hasek

[struckbyaparkedcar]

This is a great take on Hasek I came across on this reddit thread.

OK.

Take, for example, the Hasek Roll. Laymen look at Hasek rolling across the net from one side to the other and say, "DAE he just flopping? lol" Anyone who knows anything about goaltending recognizes that as a method for moving laterally with superb low coverage without engaging the skate-blades; it's consistent, repeatable, and trainable. I teach it to every goalie I coach.

Does it require extremely strong proprioception, wicked core strength and flexibility? Sure it does, especially if you want to do it well. But it also helps to build those things.

If you look back over Brodeur's career, you can watch him learning the Hasek Roll. Any Brodeur top-10 will have a few. The one on Mike York is especially funny.

Then there's the infamous 'Scorpion Save' on Marian Gaborik: yet again, a Hasek innovation, this time drawn from soccer. The difference is that Brodeur can only go straight over his back, blind; Hasek was so flexible that he could scratch his ears with his feet, and there's footage of him with a prefect visual track on the puck, picking it off with a foot reaching over his back. It's an absolutely brilliant way to keep your feet engaged in the play from a prone position.

There's also evidence of Hasek performing early variants of the SMS (aka 'Reverse-VH among the unlearned) albeit without the backside blade engagement that we now see commonly. Hasek understood, in a way that was years ahead of his time, the puck's perspective when tight to the net.
Hasek was also the first guy to systematically train and use true butterfly 'shuffling': that is, lateral movement in the BF using simply the strength and reach of the groin, keeping the pads flush to the ice and the skate-blade disengaged.

edit: Oh, and he also completely changed the way goalies train off the ice. Ya know, just little things like that.

Ask Mitch Korn how important Hasek is to the position, if you've got an hour or ten to kill.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/4sc10j/dominik_hasek_career_highlights/d58mnh6

 

[NotABadPeriod]

Didn't Hasek also popularize the "drop stick and freeze puck with blocker" maneuver?

 

[Crazy Tasty]

Hasek popularized everything.

 

[SnoopDogg]

Best to play for the Sabres and the best of all time.

 

[krt88]

Dominik Hasek, never heard of the guy, wasn't he just a flash in the pan?

 

[Disengage]

Just going to leave this year. That kid in goal will never make it giving up goals to Rob Ray.

 

[haseoke39]

Really ought to give this guy a statue. Would love to see that in alumni plaza.

 

[sabresfan129103]

That video of Ray scoring on Dom is hilarious. I remember back when he was in his prime it used to drive him nuts when Ray scored on him in practice.

 

[VaporTrail]

That video of Ray scoring on Dom is hilarious. I remember back when he was in his prime it used to drive him nuts when Ray scored on him in practice.

hahaha

 

[thekenneth]

in 1998-1999 he was the best player in the nhl.

 

[haseoke39]

in 1993-1999 he was the best player in the nhl.

fixed.

 

[Mellifleur]

I forget what team and game it was, but I'll always remember a save Hasek made when he was down-and-out, lying face-down in the crease after a mad scramble. Net wide open above him. An opposing player got the puck in the slot and went to fire it into the open net.

Hasek, still lying face-down, reaches out on the ice and grabs his goalie stick by the blade, and thrusts the stick handle behind him straight up into the air. And the stick handle actually deflected away the shot that he couldn't possibly have seen.

It was the damnedest thing I ever saw.

How about the save where he was laying down on the goal line and I think it was Lemieux that shot from the left side fairly close and Hasek's glove went up and snagged it midair. Everything was looking for where the puck went, thought it was deflected up in the stands and he shakes his glove "I got it it" and the ref has to open the glove and see to believe it...

He consistently was unbelievable. He was an act of god...

I also loved that Lindros always shook his head and stared at the scoreboard everytime he shot... as if to wonder why is there still a zero next to our team.

 

[KiwiGriff]

Remember when we had goaltending

 

[Sabre the Win]

ONLY player in my time of watching the Sabres worthy of having his jersey and number retired.

He was THAT good

 

[EichHart]

ONLY player in my time of watching the Sabres worthy of having his jersey and number retired.

He was THAT good

Well yeah, hes universally known as the best goalie in the history of the league. No one can ever take that away from the Sabres.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

This may sound sacrilegious, but I see a lot of Hasek in Vasilevsky.

Dom was amazing. He had his own style that would never be allowed now. His saves were either reactionary or like he knew where they were shooting. It was like he could see the percentages of each area of the net of it being a goal, and putting something there to stop it. 93% of the time he was right.

 

[Buffaloed]

He owns this company
https://smartydrink.cz/


I don't see any stuffed giraffes on the shelf but Zenon Konopka better keep an eye on Hoppy.

 

[member 329811]

GOAT - easily the most unorthodox style of goaltending I've seen since the days of the French Connection. I'm still baffled and shocked watching some of the stunts he pulled off watching old games -- not just the slinkyesque agility, but the balls to skate out to the blue line to challenge skaters. It's hard to put into words just how good he was. There were games you had to be at listening to the crowd buzz after one of those moments. It was similar to the crowd reaction when Perreault would take the puck from behind our net... and people would get up out of their seats expecting one of those classic end to end rushes. You can feel the energy in the building when it happened.

Bert and Dom were easily the most electrifying Sabres I've ever seen.. no question about it.

Edit: Something else - when you knew Hasek was in net that night, you had the expectation the Sabres were going to win. When teams went on the PP at a critical moment in the game, no one ever worried. OT in a playoff game? Pffft. Hasek has this. Confidence in your favorite team is something we haven't had as fans for a long, long time.

 

[Dex]

GOAT - easily the most unorthodox style of goaltending I've seen since the days of the French Connection. I'm still baffled and shocked watching some of the stunts he pulled off watching old games -- not just the slinkyesque agility, but the balls to skate out to the blue line to challenge skaters. It's hard to put into words just how good he was. There were games you had to be at listening to the crowd buzz after one of those moments. It was similar to the crowd reaction when Perreault would take the puck from behind our net... and people would get up out of their seats expecting one of those classic end to end rushes. You can feel the energy in the building when it happened.

Bert and Dom were easily the most electrifying Sabres I've ever seen.. no question about it.

Edit: Something else - when you knew Hasek was in net that night, you had the expectation the Sabres were going to win. When teams went on the PP at a critical moment in the game, no one ever worried. OT in a playoff game? Pffft. Hasek has this. Confidence in your favorite team is something we haven't had as fans for a long, long time.

Can't type right now.......... misting up.......

 

[member 329811]

Can't type right now.......... misting up.......

Those Patty / Alex days were pretty special, too.

 

[LongWayDown37]

Best Sabre of all time
Best NHL goalie of all time
In the conversation for top 5 player of all time (though it’s hard to measure skaters against goalies)

 

[Dex]

Those Patty / Alex days were pretty special, too.

They were indeed. Plus Hawerchuk - one of my all time favorites

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

Most dominant player of all time. If I was choosing a team and could get any player in their prime I take Hasek over Gretzky,Lemieux,Orr ainec. He literally carried basement level cheap teams to deep playoff runs. Without Hasek but even with another top 10 goalie those 96-01 Sabres are 4th or 5th in the Northeast every year out of the playoffs.

 

[jd1970]

People called Hasek "unorthodox", but he really was the best positional goalie ever. He did unorthodox stuff to throw shooters off their game.
I videotaped his stoning of Canada in that Olympic Games shootout, and looked at it frame by frame. He had every part of the net covered except a tiny spot over his left shoulder. The only Canadian player that recognized that opening was Ray Borque, who hit the crossbar.

 

[Not Sure]

Best Sabre of all time
Best NHL goalie of all time
In the conversation for top 5 player of all time (though it’s hard to measure skaters against goalies)

No its not, he is a top 5 player of all time. Sure you can't measure goals against saves, but you can measure dominance. Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Hasek, these were all dominant players. Not just the best scorer or goalie a few times, but head and shoulders better than anyone at their position.

The only negative I have against Hasek was that he made me love this team and now I cant just walk away from the complete incompetence of the past decade. Dom did for my generation what the French connection did for my fathers, he made hockey exciting and made kids want to watch with their parents. They grew the sport, we've lost an entire generation of hockey fans in Buffalo.