Dominik Hašek was a goaltender the world had never seen before. His style resembled ballet, chaos and a miracle all at once – he sprawled and fell, yet the puck simply would not get through. Whether wearing the jersey of Pardubice, Detroit or the Czech national team, Hašek was a guarantee that you would witness something extraordinary during the game. When one says “Nagano 1998”, most Czechs think of him. A goalie who shut down the best hockey scorers on the planet and led Czechia to gold.
From Pardubice to Overseas. And into History.
Dominik Hašek was born in 1965 in Pardubice in East Bohemia. He started playing ice hockey at the age of five, and it soon became clear that he had an exceptional feel for movement and lightning-fast reflexes. At seventeen, he was already tending goal for the senior team of Tesla Pardubice, with whom he won two league titles. In 1990, he left for the NHL, joining the Chicago Blackhawks.His breakthrough came after a move to the Buffalo Sabres, where he became a legend. He won the Vezina Trophy six times as the NHL’s best goaltender and twice the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player – an honour achieved by only a handful of goaltenders in history. In 2002, he won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings, completing his overseas career.
He returned to Czechia in 2009, when he again played for Pardubice and later for Spartak Moscow. His final season came in 2011, at the age of forty-five.
The Golden Olympic Dream and the Heart of the Nation
The pinnacle of his international career came at Nagano 1998 – the first Olympic ice hockey tournament to feature NHL players. Hašek quite literally locked the goal, shutting out Canada and Russia and becoming the symbol of the entire tournament. In Czechia, he was a true national hero at the time!He played 39 games for the Czech national team, but his contribution went far beyond statistics. His charisma and unbelievable saves rank among the most powerful moments in Czech sport of the 20th century. In 2014, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In the Footsteps of Dominik Hašek
Hašek’s most visible legacy in Czechia can be found in East Bohemian Pardubice. Visit the Enteria Arena, where guided tours occasionally take place and where you can see the locker rooms as well as an exhibition dedicated to club legends.In the city itself, take a stroll along Třída Míru street, lined with cafés, or head to Pernštýnské ssquare, where Hašek’s club celebrated its titles several times. Not far from Pardubice lies Litomyšl, the birthplace of the composer Bedřich Smetana, with a unique Renaissance château listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
