What made Hasek so good in his prime?

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

I don’t know enough about goaltending to know how and why Hasek played the way he did, but I do know it made for the most entertaining, dominant goaltending that I’ve ever seen. The fact he was so small and skinny compared to his competition made his style even more fun to watch.

Hes listed either at 6'0 165lbs, 6'1, 166lbs, or 6'2 180lbs depending on the source. When Hasek broke out in 1994, there were still some fairly significant NHL starters under 5'9 like Irbe, Vanbiesbrouk, Moog, Vernon. Definitely not small for that era.

 

[sr edler]

There was a guy on one of the main boards just recently, I think in the playoffs section, who tried to explain away Matt Duchene's subpar playoff record with "puck luck", citing his low on-ice shooting %.

I don't think you need to be a doctor in anything to look critical at these type of claims. Especially if it's (the claim) entirely in numbers. You have to look at what people do, and then use common sense. It's not that hard.

To me it's always been a little bit weird when people talk about hitting posts as bad luck, for instance, as if posts are not stationary but somehow move randomly as if at an amusement park. If you're hitting a lot of posts, your aiming is probably just slightly off.... meaning it's not good enough to result in a goal.

I think that's been one of Ovechkin's major strengths, for instance, the sheer power and velocity of his shot could just overpower the glove side, and thus he didn't really need to aim for the margins.

As for Hasek, yes he was considered one of the best Euro goalies, if not the best, before coming over to NA. How is this even a question.

 

[hitman9172]

Hes listed either at 6'0 165lbs, 6'1, 166lbs, or 6'2 180lbs depending on the source. When Hasek broke out in 1994, there were still some fairly significant NHL starters under 5'9 like Irbe, Vanbiesbrouk, Moog, Vernon. Definitely not small for that era.

I was thinking moreso that he looked skinny in comparison to Roy, Belfour, and Brodeur. Maybe he weighed less or maybe his equipment was smaller, but Hasek always looked like a “smaller” goalie on TV than the other big name goalies in the late 90s/early 2000s.

 

[PistolPete]

From what I saw of him, his flexibility was amazing. Strong? I’d assume so with how quickly he was able to recover from making an initial save that generated a rebound. Fast? Not sure. Great lateral movement though. Lanky is an apt type of build to have for all that.

Seems like the polar opposite of the goalie archetype who’s more just big and comparatively not very mobile, with a build appropriately described as being stout, makes a lot of saves from a combination of pure size as well as rock solid positioning. Hello Ben Bishop.

Good reason to make thr Darren Pang Rule:

No goalie shall be over 5'5".

 

[PistolPete]

I don’t know enough about goaltending to know how and why Hasek played the way he did, but I do know it made for the most entertaining, dominant goaltending that I’ve ever seen. The fact he was so small and skinny compared to his competition made his style even more fun to watch.

Isn't he 62"?

 

[hitman9172]

Isn't he 62"?

Yes but he was much thinner than his main rivals Roy, Brodeur, and Belfour during the late 90s/early 2000s. His skinny frame combined with his flexibility and quickness made him seem like a smaller goalie as compared to his rivals, in the sense that he looked like he was covering less of the net than the others, although that could have also been a factor of Hasek’s style of play.

 

[JianYang]

Like the best goalies, he would get in the shooter's heads. His presence on the ice was enough to psyche players out.

He was also unpredictable. Shooters had no idea what he was going to do.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Imagine how good Edmonton would be with prime Hasek. Or, Hasek with those 2000 Sens teams.

What made him great was how unpredictable he was. Buffalo's biggest mistake was never getting bonofide stars to play in front of him.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Buffalo's biggest mistake was never getting bonofide stars to play in front of him.

What about Lafontaine and Mogilny?

 

[Hockeyholic]

What about Lafontaine and Mogilny?

Forgot about those two.

 

[Hockeyholic]

What about Lafontaine and Mogilny?

I keep forgetting about the 93-97 Sabres.

I only think about 98-99 for some reason.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I keep forgetting about the 93-97 Sabres.

The end of this series was phenomenal:

 

[Hockeyholic]

The end of this series was phenomenal:

Underrated all time classic series

 

[hitman9172]

Wayne Gretzky once said something along the lines of “When goalies enter the NHL, eventually everyone figures out their tendencies and has a book on them. With Dominik Hasek, not only did I not have a book on him, I felt like he had a book on me.”

I feel like the only player that consistently seemed to have a book on Hasek in 1 on 1 situations was Mario Lemieux.

 

[Zman5778]

My favorite quote about Hasek is that someone once said that he "had a spine like a Slinky."

It was a commercial. Warning: a potato takes better video than this:

 

[Zman5778]

What about Lafontaine and Mogilny?

And Hawerchuk. And Andreychuk.

God, that 92/93 Sabres team was so good. What could have been if Muckler pulled his head out of his ass and realized that Hasek was our best goalie.......

And that series against Montreal -- closest sweep ever. My god.

 

[MadLuke]

I keep forgetting about the 93-97 Sabres.

Hasek was not the starter in 1993, Lafontaine only 16 games in 1994, 22 in 1995 and then Mogilny was gone.

He did not really play much with Lafontaine and Mogilny together, Lafontaine had a single healthy season in Buffalo after 1993. So I think it will be common to separate the Lafontaine/Mogilny Sabres with the Hasek one because in term of game played, that was kind of the case, it was arguably more the Hawerchuck-Mogilny-Hasek Sabres than Lafontaine.

But to note in 1996 after healthy Lafontaine, Buffalo highest scorer were Burridge, Plante, Galley, Dawe and Brad May.

I think that would have been hard for someone to answer that one correctly in a trivia night (outside Galley not really prominent career has scorer), Audette injured all year.

 

[The Macho Man]

Yes but he was much thinner than his main rivals Roy, Brodeur, and Belfour during the late 90s/early 2000s. His skinny frame combined with his flexibility and quickness made him seem like a smaller goalie as compared to his rivals, in the sense that he looked like he was covering less of the net than the others, although that could have also been a factor of Hasek’s style of play.

Being skinnier than Brodeur isn't particularly impressive....

/Avery

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

He had incredible athleticism and flexibility, certainly, and his ability to read plays and anticipate was world class.

One key teachable elements of his game is understanding the difference between (a) the space between the puck and the corners of the net, and (b) the space between the shooter’s eyes and the corners of the net.

Most good goaltenders understand (a) although Hasek’s understanding of the vertical component was a key goaltending development.

Most goaltenders do not know how to manage the distinction between (a) and (b) well, and I can assure you that nearly all shooters and TV commentators do not understand the distinction. The number of handshake lines I’ve been in where a shooter tells me how lucky I was because they missed a wide open net is a large number.

When TV commentators call Hasek lucky it’s because they’re typically not understanding the distinction between (a) and (b), and when they say on TV that Hasek is lucky, that’s how viewers decide that as well.

This was the insight which made him genius. Using his body in novel ways to cut off the path of the puck made him spectacular to watch. At best most revolutionary thinkers tend to pick one aspect to innovate. Hasek was re-writing the book on almost every single goalie related action.

It's unknowable, but I wonder how much of his lesson's we haven't even started to absorb yet.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

This was the insight which made him genius. Using his body in novel ways to cut off the path of the puck made him spectacular to watch. At best most revolutionary thinkers tend to pick one aspect to innovate. Hasek was re-writing the book on almost every single goalie related action.

It's unknowable, but I wonder how much of his lesson's we haven't even started to absorb yet.

I’d argue that we saw a lot of Hasek influence with Lundqvist and Quick. Ignoring the voice of the announcer (RIP RJ), if you closed your eyes listening to their biggest saves and you’d swear it was the exact same goalie.

 

[kirby11]

Usually, it is the great forwards that leave goaltenders guessing. With Hasek, it was the opposite. Skaters had no idea what he would do to stop the puck. Literally no clue. He always zigged when players tried to zag.

My favorite bit of standard hockey logic that Hasek almost always broke is "force the shooter to make the first move on a breakaway." He'd be relatively squared up to the forward on the "runway" of ice, sure, but he'd always be making minute adjustments that got the shooter to reconsider his plan as he was skating in on goal.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I'd say his superhuman flexibility and also he innovated a lot of techniques.

 

[VaporTrail]

He could be laying face down in the crease with his back to the shooter, kick up a leg and make a save with his foot.