Twenty-five years after Nagano, Hasek still stands tall

Hockey's most outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine reflects on the performance of a lifetime on the biggest stage in the hockey world

Dominik Hasek was at the height of his powers in the 1998 Olympics.

Twenty-five years ago today, Dominik Hasek stood between Russia and an Olympic gold medal. And as the greatest goalie in NHL history – yeah, I said it – celebrates one of the crowning achievements of his Hall of Fame career on the silver anniversary of the Czech Republic’s gold in Nagano, he’s still standing up to Russia.

The man who grew up during Communist rule and Soviet occupation in the former Czechoslovakia has not hid his disdain for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He spoke out about it early and often and has been highly critical of the NHL for allowing Russian-born players to continue to play in the best league in the world. When the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators played games in Prague to open the 2022-23 regular season, Hasek made it clear that the Russian players – Alexander Barabanov of the Sharks and Yakov Trenin of the Predators – were not welcome, and he lobbied the NHL and his own government to keep them off the ice.

“What is bothering me is people are dying,” Hasek said in a telephone interview with Hockey Unfiltered. “By the hundreds every day, on both sides. I’m trying to help because I know what I’m doing is the right thing. I will try to do anything to shorten the war and help (fewer) people die. That is my goal and anything I do and anything I say is just for this one goal.”

And that includes using his platform as a former athlete and hero in his homeland, a status that was cemented a quarter century ago today when he stopped all 20 Russian shots to help the Czech Republic to a 1-0 win in the gold medal game of the first Olympic tournament to feature NHL stars. And it came at a time when Hasek was at the height of his powers. The 33-year-old was just a couple of months away from winning the fourth of his six Vezina Trophies as the NHL’s top goalie and his second straight Hart Trophy as MVP. In six games, he recorded a ridiculous 0.97 goals-against average and a .961 save percentage during the Nagano Games, including all five shootout attempts by Canada in the semifinal.

“I don’t know if it was the best I ever played because I had some other great games,” Hasek said. “But if you win such a great tournament with the numbers I had, yeah, it was my best tournament.”

Going into the tournament, there was almost nothing to suggest that the Czechs would be the last team standing. They had just come off a disastrous World Cup of Hockey and had almost as many non-NHL players as they had NHL players. Most pundits expected Canada and USA to battle for gold, but both were vanquished by Hasek and the Czechs before they could get there. Hasek, who kissed the Czech coat of arms on his sweater before every game, was intent on not allowing an opportunity to make history go by. After all, he was 33 years old. How was he to know that he still had two more Olympics, not to mention three Vezinas, two Stanley Cups and eight more NHL seasons ahead of him?

“I thought it may be the last time I ever have a chance to represent the Czech Republic in the biggest tournament in the world,” Hasek said. “I was dreaming about this tournament since the summer of ’97. I really thought it was the last time I can have a chance to do something good for the Czech Republic.”

But it certainly wasn’t a dream team behind which Hasek was playing. Jaromir Jagr was en route to winning the NHL scoring title and there were a number of other quality NHL players on that squad, but there were also names few outside of Europe had ever heard before, players such as defenceman Jaroslav Spacek, who was brilliant in the Olympics and used the tournament as a springboard to a 14-year NHL career. Hasek himself was completely unfamiliar with Spacek until the defenceman hit him in the elbow with a shot in the team’s first practice, “and I said, f---, that guy has a hard shot.’ ” Another player about whom Hasek was unsure was Vladimir Ruzicka, who had been out of the NHL for four years and was 34 himself. Czech coach Ivan Hlinka chose Ruzicka as captain over Jagr and Robert Reichel, a choice that turned out to be a great one, with Ruzicka providing the leadership and calm the team needed. “That was one of the greatest moves by Ivan Hlinka,” Hasek said. “I was worried (Ruzicka) was behind his prime time, but at the first practice I could see that he could still play. Hlinka made a great decision.”

Just months after Canada celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Summit Series, the 25^th anniversary of the Czechs’ win in Nagano was every bit as significant a global hockey event. (And way, way more geopolitical.) Like the Summit Series in Canada, people in the tiny, hockey-mad country will talk about 1998 and Nagano for years. In fact, among the festivities Hasek will take part in today in Prague is the debut screening of a movie called Deti Nagana (or Children of Nagano), a coming-of-age film about a young boy who was inspired by the Czechs’ performance in the 1998 Olympics. In one of the scenes, Hasek visits the boy in a dream.

Which is only fitting. “For me, Nagano was more than a dream,” Hasek said. “It will forever be a big thing for the Czech people.”