The End of the Dominance? - Buffalo Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek

Hockey Digest, Jan, 2001 by Tim O'Shei

Dominik Hasek wasn't supposed to be spending this year in Buffalo, but when a groin injury ruined his final Cup run, the "Dominator" decided to give it one last chance

THE PLAY WAS BASIC ENOUGH, everyone doing their jobs: The sniper shoots, the goalie saves. The big forward flicks back the rebound; the bigger defenseman flips him over. Totally instinctive.

But sometimes it's those basic instincts that cause the most trouble.

This near-911 call happened in Buffalo back in October. The Sabres were facing the Chicago Blackhawks in the season opener. Dominik Hasek was back in goal, looking splendid after spending his summer recovering from a severe groin tear. One year ago, nobody had expected Hasek to be anywhere near a hockey net today. (Unless that net was in the street in front of his home in the Czech Republic and Hasek was playing with his 10-year-old son's friends.) First, Hasek was going to retire; later, he wasn't. We'll get back to that point shortly, but for now, know this: Hasek was looking good in net, and the Sabres were feeling even better about having him.

Then the clock struck 12.

With just shy of a dozen minutes left in the first period, the Hawks' Boris Mironov unleashed a point-blank shot on Hasek. The puck and several bodies tangled in front of the net. "He didn't have the puck tied up so I tried to get my stick in there and pop it out over to Mironov," says Chicago winger Tony Amonte. "When I did I was little off-balance, and one of their defensemen tried to clear me out of the net."

Doing exactly his job, Buffalo defenseman Jay McKee knocked Amonte on his backside. Problem is, Amonte's rear never quite hit the ice. Hasek was below him, and Amonte landed directly on the back of the goalie's left leg.

Slowly, Hasek stood up. Hunched over, he skated off the ice, slammed his stick on the bench, and hobbled into the dressing room.

He wasn't to be seen again that night.

"I thought about jumping out of the suite," says Sabres general manager Darcy Regier. "I was very concerned."

Regier raced down to the Sabres dressing room. Right away, the doctor told him, "I think it's OK."

It turned out that Hasek strained a ligament under his left kneecap and was placed on injured reserve for a week. The Sabres went on to beat the Blackhawks that night and the Los Angeles Kings two days later, both with rookie Mika Noronen in the net. So the story had a fairly happy ending, although everyone realizes that the best way for Buffalo to have a happy season is to have a healthy Hasek. "Goaltending is paramount to anything else," says head coach Lindy Ruff. "You can run into injuries, your offense can go south for a while, and you know you can still win games, 1-0."

Over the years, the Sabres have had enough injuries to fill a hospital floor (remember Pat LaFontaine?) and their offense has sometimes taken extended vacations in Florida (check out last season's power play). But the one constant has been Hasek ... until last year.

Entering the 1999-2000 season, the globe's greatest goalie was its most exhausted one, too. In the previous two years, Hasek had led his Czech Republic homeland to an Olympic gold medal and the Sabres to the Stanley Cup Finals. That's 176 games and two Hart Trophies in 22 months. Hasek was tired, burned out from the media attention, and frustrated that his kids, Michal (now 10) and Dominika (5), were more American than Czech. By summer 1999, Hasek was ready for a permanent break. He'd play one more year, then go. "I won't come back," he said at the time. "It's over."

But the 1999-2000 season was no retirement party. A poor start for Hasek and the team was worsened by a serious groin tear. From late October to February, Hasek was out. He missed 40 games, but did a lot of thinking. "I never experienced it before," Hasek says of being injured. "And all of a sudden, I thought more, and I felt I cannot retire like this."

So he decided to stay. There's the matter of a Stanley Cup ring ("You think about it almost every day," Hasek says) and there's pride. Limping is no way for an all-world goalie to exit the game. "That's why I want to play again," Hasek says. "I feel like there still something in me, and I can still do something for the Sabres."

Were Hasek's teammates shocked last spring when he decided to come back? Not exactly. "I pretty much said, `Well, we'll see what happens when it comes to drop the puck for training camp,'" says defenseman Jason Woolley. "But you never know. We thought he was going to come back in the first place." Woolley added with a laugh, "We don't trust him!"

So Hasek's mind frame, like his goaltending style, is a little unpredictable. The Sabres don't mind that; in fact, they like it. Famous for his temper in practice, Hasek has been back to his old habit of breaking sticks when he lets in an easy goal. Watching that has been an education for Noronen, the 21-year-old rookie goaltender who began the year in Buffalo while backup Martin Biron remained unsigned. "When you watch him in practice, you learn something," Noronen says. "I think the biggest thing is his desire to make the save on every shot. If he allows a goal, he's very mad after that and he tries to do better the next time."