Obviously Dominik Hasek is one of the best goaltenders of all time. There is no doubt about that. But going into this season at 40 years old who honestly believed that he could play up to the par of the NHL goalies nowadays. The new rules certainly didn’t help his chances. Although we’re only about 10 games into the season it looks as though Hasek is well on his way to another Vezina Trophy.Hasek is well known for perfecting the butterfly form of goaltending. But all of this caused him constant injuries, mostly in his groin. Therefore I didn’t think he could last 5 games without pulling his groin or something to that extent. But look at him. He’s 6-1, has 2 shutouts, and has a 1.68 GAA. He’s flat out unbelievable.
Hasek has been amazing since he came into the league as the 199th overall draft pick in the 83′ draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. He didn’t actually start playing until 1990 though where he played 5 games going 3-0-1. Hasek left the Blackhawks in 92′ and went to play with the Sabres where he’s spent the majority of his career (92-01).
In a Sabres uniform he was simply amazing and earned the nickname The Dominator. In the 98-99 season, in which the Sabres made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, Hasek won 30 games with a 1.87 GAA. In the playoffs of that year he had a 1.77 GAA. In 2001 he wanted a Stanley Cup so he went to Detroit and won there the next season.
He came back out of retirement in the 03-04 season for the Redwings but only played 14 games. Finally he came to Ottawa for this year. And if he continues on this pace it’ll be the best season of his career and possibly one of the best seasons ever. As much as I hate to be wrong I have to say I’m sort of happy that Dominik Hasek is dominating in the NHL ranks once again.