Tales of the Dominator: Talking about practice

Mike Ramsey saw his share of great goaltending during his days patrolling the blue line for the Buffalo Sabres. He was on the team when Don Edwards and Bob Sauve shared the Vezina Trophy in 1979-80 and when Tom Barrasso took the trophy as a rookie four years later.

Yet even Ramsey had never seen anything quite like Dominik Hasek.

"I don't know how many goalies can go a whole practice and he doesn't give up a goal," Ramsey, who was an assistant coach on Lindy Ruff's staff from 1997 to 2000, said. "I mean, think about it, how many drills you do. There would be practices Dom would not give up a goal."

Anyone who has seen an NHL practice knows how hard that is to comprehend. Even after a spectacular save, players will tap in second chances while the goalie turns his attention to the next shooter. To see no pucks cross the goal line sounds implausible even for the best goaltenders.

"I believe that's true," former Sabres forward Brad May said. "We tell that story. I can't tell you I remember what day or how it happened, but I do remember - and certainly rumors get started and they perpetuate themselves - but there were practices that, yeah, he was unbeatable."

Could it be that practice shutouts are a Bunyanesque aspect of Hasek's legend, like the "called shot" is to Babe Ruth's? It's widely accepted that Ruth pointed to the outfield before hitting his famous home run at Wrigley Field during the 1932 World Series. That narrative becomes murky, however, when reading accounts of the time.

Was Ruth pointing toward the pitcher, Charlie Root? Was he pointing toward the heckling Cubs dugout, warning them of his next swing? Even then, the feat would be amazing - just not as much as calling the exact location of a home run.

"First of all, let me say it this way: The legends, when the player doesn't play and as more years go by, all these stories become more bigger and bigger," Hasek said. "… I don't think I ever had a shutout in the whole practice. I don't think so."

Here's what we do know: Hasek brought an intensity and competitiveness to practice that still resonates which those he played with.

Shutouts in practice? These stories are even better.

Tales of the Dominator: Part 1 - Born to be the Goaltender | Part 2 - Coming to Buffalo

"Brownie! Brownie!"

While Hasek rejected the notion of a shutout, one feat of practice dominance does live in his memory today.

"I remember there were two players, Curtis Brown and Wayne Primeau," Hasek said. "And we had practice and I knew I'm not going to play that night, so they were going penalty shots at me and I know I was - I think it was about 50 penalty shots they didn't score a goal so then I left the ice.

"I say, 'OK, I want to finish like that.'"

Ramsey offered a variation of the same story, saying that Hasek's repeated stops on Brown were an act of retaliation after Brown had scored earlier in the practice.

"He made him shoot again, and again, and again, and again, and again," Ramsey said. "… I don't know if that was Dom's way of saying that was a fluke. He was a goalie."

It's true that Hasek had a reputation for keeping teammates on the ice if they bested him. It was more than competitiveness; it was how he kept his mental edge. Hasek wanted to leave the ice feeling his best, every single day.

Which brings us to Curtis Brown.

Brown doesn't rule out Hasek's story about stopping 50 straight penalty shots, but the story he remembers is different. It began with a game of "three puck," a post-practice contest in which a player would take three shots - two from between the top of the circles and another on a breakaway.

On this particular day, Brown beat Hasek on all three.

"Scoring on an NHL goalie is one level and it's nothing to shake a stick at," Brown said. "However, on Dom, everybody knows - the opponents know, your teammates know - that's another step."

Brown, realizing the improbability of what he had just done, left the ice as quickly as possible. Then he heard an unmistakable Czech accent gaining ground on him.

"Brownie! Brownie!"

"Dom had chased me down and would not allow me to go into the locker room because that was unacceptable to him to end that way and he wanted to, probably, redeem his superiority in this particular case," Brown said. "So, of course you can't not go back out onto the ice with Dominik Hasek when he calls you back.

"So, we went back out onto the ice, and the version that I remember which I would say is true is we went back and did multiple rounds - I do not remember how many rounds, I do not remember how many pucks - but I did not score on him again. So, after scoring three in a row and making the right move to leave the ice, my instincts were perfect to leave. Unfortunately, I only got so far before I came back and I was put, I guess you would say, back in my place."

Headstrong

When shutting down teammates wasn't enough, Hasek would resort to other tactics to prove his dominance. Often, they involved using his head.

"He would take his helmet off and stop the whole practice and he would challenge the guy who scored," May said. "He always had to win. You could never leave the ice scoring on him because he always wanted to have that mental toughness to be the best guy or the guy who would win the 1-on-1 battle."

This one was corroborated by Hasek himself, who admitted the challenge had its roots in his days playing overseas. Hasek was upset after being scored on during warmups and literally resorted to trying to make saves with his head.

"I said, 'OK, now everybody shoots at the head,'" Hasek recalled. "So, I tried to stop every puck with the head. Wrist shots, it wasn't the slap shots. The coaches, they saw it, and they didn't know what I told my teammates.

"They call one guy, a young guy, and are like, 'You hit his head.' They gave him a fine of like 500 crowns, which is like 10 dollars. He said, 'OK, he asked me to shoot at his head.' I said, 'No, shut up, you pay 10 dollars fine.' So, this I remember. Then I was laughing at him in the locker room.

"You know, to be part of the team, it's fun. It's fun on the ice, it's fun in the locker room, it's fun off the ice. That's what is hockey about."

Forward thinking methods

Brad May's favorite Dominik Hasek save happened during a game against Edmonton in 1996. Doug Weight got in behind the Buffalo defense and brought the puck to his backhand as he drifted through the slot, bringing Hasek with him.

When Weight transferred the puck back to his forehand, Hasek was down on the ice. He was beat, and then he wasn't. Hasek turned on his back and slammed his blocker on the ice, stopping the puck from entering what had been a wide-open net.

See for yourself.

"We'd seen it in practice, so we weren't surprised," May said. "And everybody was like, 'That was such a lucky save.' This guy had a method to his movements, to his madness."

It's true that while some of Hasek's unorthodox contortions were matters of reflex, most were preconceived in practice. Take the barrel roll, for example, in which Hasek would tumble on his back and send both pads into the air to take away the top of the net when a shooter cut in from right to left.

Hasek says he began using that move in the Czech Republic and estimates that he practiced it every week in the NHL.

"I like to think about hockey … about making every save," Hasek said. "It's just part of my personality. So, you gave up some goal and I was always thinking what I could do to not give up the same goal or a similar goal the next time. ... Every day through my whole hockey career, I was thinking about every goal. I was thinking about what I can do next time a little bit different way so I could stop this puck."

Michael Peca recalls other unorthodox requests.

"I've just never seen anybody practice that hard, and just the things he practiced," Peca said. "He'd be on his knees in front and he'd ask you to shoot over his shoulder so he could use his head to deflect pucks. A lot of the things he did were incredibly unique."

Hasek's knowledge of the game extended beyond his crease. Defenseman Darryl Shannon recalls postgame plane rides in which Hasek would recall the circumstances of saves in extreme detail.

"He'll be able to pinpoint where everybody is all the time and how they moved and the play evolves," Shannon said. "It changed my whole perspective of the way he thought and what goes on in his head during a game. He was aware of where every single player was on the ice."

Said Ramsey: "Dom was a great student of the game. In the meetings, we'd talk about systems or something like that, we'd go, 'Where's the winger supposed to go here?' Dom would go, 'He's got to come across,' and we'd go, 'Dom. Dom. This is for the players.' He knew the game."