The Dominator turns 60: Legendary goalie Dominik Hašek looks back at his hockey career

Dominik Hašek
  • The Dominator turns 60: Legendary goalie Dominik Hašek looks back at his hockey career
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On January 29th, Dominik Hašek, considered by some to be the greatest ice-hockey goaltender in history, celebrates his sixtieth birthday. He spoke to Danny Bate about his career, looking back on his early years, his time as a professional sportsman, and his favourite memories.

I have the immense privilege to be joined here in the studio by the Dominator himself, Mr. Dominik Hašek. Thank you so much for coming in today, it's truly appreciated.

Danny Bate in the studio with Dominik Hašek | Photo: Jan Kubelka,  Radio Prague International

“Thank you too. Nice to be here today and I'm also excited.”

The main reason why you have kindly come here today is that you do have a, shall we say, significant birthday coming up this month. This is a chance to reflect on the many events of your career. To start off with, I'd like to take you back to your early career, when you were first setting out in the 1970s and 80s in Czechoslovakia. What was that like? And how might the journey to becoming a professional hockey player be different today?

“Of course, I remember the 70s and 80s in Czechoslovakia – these were great days for me. I was a kid and I was doing what I love to do: playing sport, playing hockey. I come from a small city, Pardubice, with one-hundred thousand people, and hockey was by far the number-one sport over there. So, I was excited to be a young kid and a young hockey player.

Dominik Hašek in 1985 | Photo: Pavel Khol,  ČTK

“By the way, since the first practice, I've been a goalie. Some players or some goalies, they start off as forwards or defencemen, then they become the goalies. I was a goalie since practice number one.

“I didn't pay any attention as a little kid to politics. All my life was my friends at school and hockey. I watched every game on TV, when the Czech national team played against Finland or Sweden, and especially against the Russian (or rather Soviet Union) team, which was the best team in the world. I never missed a game when our team – I don’t know if I can call it a professional team, but in the 70s and 80s, officially it wasn't – but when Pardubice, the big guys, played, I never missed anything. I was so excited.

“Of course, I was excited about my games and I played on a great team with great teammates. Some of them made it to the NHL, some to the national team. So we had a great team when I was aged seven, eight, nine, through to fifteen. I played with great players. I was lucky. Later on, I became a professional player in Czechoslovakia and played for the national team. So the 70s and 80s, for me, were great years, because I could play hockey and I loved it.”

World Ice Hockey Championship in 1987. Goaltender Dominik Hašek and defenseman Miloslav Hořava on guard against Soviet attackers,  center Sergei Makarov. | Photo: Libor Hajský,  ČTK

And what was it about the position of goaltender? What attracted you to that position? Because you've stayed there!

“That's a good question. What exactly attracted me when I was a tiny little kid, I don't remember too well. I wrote about it in my book, which was in 1999, and which I spent three years writing.

Dominik Hašek in the NHL in 1992 | Photo: Fred Jewell,  ČTK/AP

“I still remember a little bit from when I was three or four years old. I never asked my grandfather or my father to play football with me. I always told them ‘this is my net’, which was somewhere at home – it was a door in the kitchen! I gave them a tennis ball, and they had a tiny little stick. I’d always say ‘shoot at me!’

“When I was outside somewhere on the grass, I’d take off my shoes or my jacket, put them on one side, and use trees as the other net. I never tried to score a goal. I was the guy who asked ‘shoot the puck at me!’ In the first picture of me, when I’m on a lake for the first time at the age of five, I'm in the net. The posts are my shoes because I had old tiny skates on.

“I was probably born to be a goalie”

“Like I say, I was probably born to be a goalie. I was so excited just to be in the net and stop the puck or ball. I stuck with it until age of 46 when I retired from professional hockey.”

It seems like destiny! And during your career in hockey, you developed a very distinct style on the ice. You were very flexible, very bendy. How did this happen? Were you aware of developing your own style, or was it very natural?

“So, there are two things. I was very, very flexible, you are right, and you have to be born with this. I practiced every day and stretched, but not every goalie, not every person can be as flexible as me. So I was lucky.

“As for my butterfly – I don't know if listeners know what this is. It's like curving your knees so you cover the lower part of the net. Anyway, my butterfly was probably the best in the world, but I was lucky. My knees were just different. I remember, when I was fourteen, my coaches and I went to the doctor, as every kid needs to do before every season. They pointed and said to the doctor ‘look, look at his knee. This is not normal.’ I showed the doctor, who looked at me like ‘whoa, this is not normal.’ Then he asked me, ‘does it hurt you?’ I said that it didn’t. So he said, ‘okay, you can play hockey, but this is not normal.’

“I developed the style that was the best for me”

“So, I was lucky. I was lucky because I was more flexible than any of my teammates, especially my knees. I could bend them sideways in a weird way, which helped me to cover the lower part of the net.

“Also, I never really had a goalie coach up till the age of twenty-five. So I sort of developed my style just watching the big guys, and I tried to do different things. I developed it on my own, which was helpful, because everybody is different. I developed the style that was the best for me.”

And has your style influenced later players? Have you found that people have been copying what you did?

Dominik Hasek while playing for Detroit Red Wings | Photo: Dan4th Nicholas,  Wikimedia Commons,  CC BY-SA 2.0

“Let me just say one thing: in Czechia, they didn't think as much about my style. Everything changed when I came to the NHL, as that goalie from somewhere in Europe coming to North America. But my advantage was I didn't speak English at all. So I had no idea what the reporters were talking about, what the newspapers and coaches were saying about me. Later, when I found out, it was like, ‘whoa, what did they say?’ But I had no idea, and I was doing what I used to do. This was the best thing that could happen to me; I didn't understand English, so I continued to play my way.

“My knees were just different”

“In the beginning, it was more difficult because they didn't believe in my style. But as I started to play more and more, and especially during my time in Buffalo, my numbers were great. People started talking about how actually this style is not bad, maybe it's a good style. So it took a while to convince people in the organisation and the fans that my style can be very good, maybe even better.

“Of course, after that, it influenced the other goalies. I have to say, it continues to develop goalies’ styles. Now it's different again, and the goalies are better. But at my time, I was the one who people were pointing to. But I do have to say, I was lucky, because my knees were so good that I could bend them from post to post. This was my biggest, or one of my biggest advantages, compared to other goalies.”

Dominik Hašek was the first Czech inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame | Photo: YouTube

And you mentioned there Buffalo – that’s the Buffalo Sabres, the club with which I think you are most closely associated. Do you still have a close connection to the people in Buffalo?

“Buffalo is in my heart. I spent nine years of my career there, and I became a starting goalie in Buffalo. I played in the NHL. I was a star in Buffalo, but never won the cup. We were always in the semi-finals, except one year in the playoffs. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the cup to Buffalo, but I spent many great seasons there. I became close not only with the organisation and of course with the players, but also with the whole community. This was fantastic. I have to repeat it; Buffalo stays in my heart forever. It's almost like my second home.

“Buffalo is in my heart”

“At the end of my hockey career, I established a hockey programme in Buffalo. It was 2001 when I left Buffalo. The name is Hašek’s Heroes; it's a hockey programme for inner-city kids. So we started this programme in 2001, and now in 2025 the programme is running and developing. That's what keeps me also close to Buffalo. I'll go there every year at least once and talk to the coaches and volunteers. So, I left Buffalo, but this is one of the reasons why I'm still close to Buffalo. Like I say, it will stay in my heart for the rest of my life.”

Photo: Jana Myslivečková,  Czech Radio

I know this is not easy, but if you had to choose one moment in your life, not just your professional career, but one moment in your life that is the best memory for you, what would it be?

“I'll have to go with my kids, as number one. These are my children; I have two adult children and one little child, who’s three years old. His name is Honzík. Now my focus is on him, of course. So you have to always go with your kids, this is the most important thing.

“And if I go to my hockey career, I always like to talk about people, about people who I have met in my life. My teammates, people around me, my teachers – these are the people I will never forget. These were important. Of course, my parents too. I was so lucky. And as a professional player, because I've been living in the Czech Republic most of my life, I have to go with the Olympic gold medal.”

Dominik Hašek after winning the Olympic tournament in Nagano | Photo: APF Czech Radio