Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 12: The Dominator Dominates

Despite the negative reputation the Sabres built up for years, they were one of the better franchises in the 40+ years before their playoff drought began. Hell, the Sabres being a team full of young guns is a familiar sentiment. The Sabres were exactly like that in the mid 70s, mid 80s and mid 2000s. Even with that, their best teams came in the late 90s with squads that were the antithesis of this current young gun group and led by one man. Dominik Hasek wasn’t just a goalie in the 90s and early 2000s. He was THE goalie. He was a force of nature. He was incomparable, unfathomable, basically any adjective you can think of that means the best. The Dominator was the best goalie in the NHL for a decade. He first became Buffalo’s primary goaltender in 1993, from that time to 2004, he led everyone in save percentage with .926. The only goalies that approach him played less than half as many games. The closest goalies with similar volume are 10 points below him. He was at his very best in the last 90s. In both 1997 and 1998, Hasek won the Vezina as the best goalie, the Hart trophy as league MVP and the Pearson as the player’s MVP while leading the NHL in save percentage. Yet, somehow, his peak may have come in 1999. What I have neglected to mention is the fact that Buffalo did not have a good offense in front of Hasek during this time, never having a team that ranked top 10 in goals scored, Which makes it even more insane he was this good. 1999 was no different. The Sabres only had 3 20-goal scorers, a single player with 30+ goals and finished in the bottom half of goals scored. They knew the team ran through Hasek. So what do you do when the team runs through you? You drive them all the way to the top. Dominik Hasek started the 1999 playoffs with an incredible first round. In a 4 game sweep of the Senators, Hasek lived up to this nickname, giving Ottawa no chance with a .963 save percentage. The Sabres went on to face the Bruins in round 2 and Hasek looked “human”. Human for him was .918 in a 6-game series win. Hasek then outdueled CuJo in the conference finals to send Buffalo to their only Stanley Cup Final. Sadly, the Sabres lost in 6 to the Dallas Stars with game 6 ending with the most controversial goal ever when Brett Hull scored the OT winner. The Dominator was the last person you could blame for Buffalo losing. He put up a .939 save percentage and gave up more than 2 goals just once. Dominik Hasek accomplished so much in his career and eventually won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 2002 and 2008, but his Buffalo years will never be forgotten. He is Buffalo’s Stanley Cup Hero until they finally get to hold the trophy.