When you think of legendary NHL goalies it’s hard to look pass Dominik Hasek. The Czech Hall-of-Famer played 16(!) seasons in the NHL, and during those years, he put up some pretty impressive numbers.
Hasek won the Cup twice in his career, and also won the Vezina Trophy an impressive six times. ”The Dominator” was truly a one of a kind goalie, who simply hated to lose.
Dominik Hasek announced his retirement at age 47, although he ”only” played in the NHL until he was 43. But even during his last years in the league, he never stopped competing, and always brought a massive amount of passion to the ice.
Now his former Detroit Red Wings teammate Chris Osgood shares a story about how Hasek, as a 42 year old, told his teammates to take slap shots at him from the hash marks before a playoff game against Pittsburgh, just to test his reflexes.
”This is to sum up Dominik Haseks career, how awesome it was, and what kind of a competitor he was. We’re in Pittsburgh, and we’re playing game six. We won that night, he’s in a three days skate and lined up pucks at the hash mark, had guys skate from blueline and takes slap shots at him to see if he still had his reflexes. Like… he was 42 at the time! That’s impressive!”, said Osgood on the Cam and Strick Podcast.
