Dominik Hašek: Always the Goalie — Inside the Sabres’ New Film on the Dominator

It started on InGoal’s own The Last Line: on Episode 3, Ian Clark and Kevin Woodley got to talking about Dominik Hašek and mentioned the new documentary the Buffalo Sabres made about him. It was too good not to share, so we’re bringing it to InGoal readers here.

Dominik Hašek: Always the Goalie premiered February 1, 2026 on MSG and the Sabres’ channels, is presented by Dave & Adam’s, and now streams free on the team’s YouTube channel. Rather than a highlight reel, the Sabres’ crew traveled to Pardubice — the working-class, communist-era city dubbed Czech “Hockeytown” — to find out how Hašek became Hašek. Through family, former teammates, coaches and even his old teachers, the 96-minute film traces an often-tardy six-year-old with a homemade blocker all the way to Olympic gold and a Stanley Cup.

Why every goalie should watch

Hašek never looked like anyone else. The Dominator flopped, spun, dropped his stick, threw a glove, lost his mask — and somehow the puck stayed out. But underneath the apparent chaos was ruthless efficiency and one of the deepest understandings of net coverage the game has produced. On The Last Line, Ian Clark singled out Hašek’s grasp of the “power of middle net” as something almost no one who has played the position has matched — proof that the “unorthodox” label always undersold how much he actually understood.

A résumé that still doesn’t compute

Over 735 NHL games with Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit and Ottawa, Hašek went 389–223–13 with a 2.20 goals-against average, a .922 save percentage and 81 shutouts — numbers built in a far higher-scoring era than today’s. The hardware:

• Six Vezina Trophies (1993–2001) — the most by any goalie under the modern voting format
• Back-to-back Hart Trophies (1997, 1998) — the only goaltender ever named NHL MVP in consecutive seasons
• 1998 Olympic gold in Nagano, with a barely-believable 0.97 GAA through the tournament
• Two Stanley Cups in Detroit (starter in 2002, backup in 2008)
• Hockey Hall of Fame, 2014 — the first Czech-born player enshrined

A 10th-round afterthought in the 1983 NHL Draft (199th overall by Chicago), he needed years in Europe before the league caught on — a reminder that the most important goalie development often happens far from the spotlight.

The real story is Pardubice

What makes Always the Goalie worth your time isn’t the trophies — it’s the place. The film’s argument is that the tight-knit, resource-scarce, politically locked-down world Hašek grew up in is exactly what forged the compete level and improvisation that defined his career. For goalie parents and coaches, it’s a case study in how environment shapes a goaltender long before technique ever does.

Watch Dominik Hašek: Always the Goalie on the Buffalo Sabres’ YouTube channel or at Sabres.com — and use the chapter markers up top to jump straight to the moments that matter most to you.