0310090291
DETROIT FREE PRESS
031009
Thursday, October 09, 2003
METRO FINAL
1D
MITCH ALBOM Free Press columnist
Copyright (c) 2003, Detroit Free Press
DOMINATOR HAS DOUBTS, WHICH IS A GOOD THING
Tonight, for the first time in 13 years, Dominik Hasek will not come home to
his wife and kids after an NHL regular-season home game. Instead, he will
return to an empty Birmingham apartment, half a world away from his family.
When it's time to cook dinner, he says, "I will make chicken and potatoes."
And what else, he is asked?
"Chicken and potatoes," he says.
Meet a man on a mission, fighting age, living alone, cooking for one, his
family still back in the Czech Republic, where Hasek himself had planned to
stay until a few months ago, when the hockey termites began chewing on the
foundation of his retirement plans.
Now he is doing the opposite of what he said he'd do a year ago, the opposite
of what some people think he should do, and, truth be told, the opposite of
what his body may tell him he is capable of.
"Is there doubt?" the goalie says, when asked if he can return to his famous
form at age 38. "There is always doubt. You never know if you can be the same
tomorrow.
"All my life, to be honest, I was never fully confident. Never in my life.
There was always something to prove."
Never confident? The Dominator? The guy who carried Buffalo all those years?
The guy who, at the 1998 Olympics, shut down the entire world? That guy? Never
fully confident?
"The doubt," he says, "is what motivates you."
Hmm.
We may have to rename him the "Doubtinator."
The quest for the Cup
Now, if you think Hasek has doubts, just poke around the nervous corners of
Red Wings nation. Hasek's performance is, and will be, the story of the year.
Will the Dominator prove to be Don Quixote, tilting at windmills with a big
fat goalie stick, doing what athletes in other sports have vainly tried --
from Michael Jordan in basketball to George Foreman in boxing -- convinced
that some piece of the old magic is still there?
"I did not want to be 50," Hasek says, "and thinking that I could have had
another Stanley Cup."
Then again, most hockey fans remember when one was enough. They remember Hasek
soaked in champagne after the 2002 finals, his pointy frame and jutting
cheekbones suggesting a man who had nearly starved to death to earn the big
wet smile on his face. At that moment, he had everything he wanted: an Olympic
gold medal, lots of money and finally, finally, the Stanley Cup.
He said good-bye. Why not end there?
"Because," he says, "there is nothing better than to win."
Except to win again.
And so, despite days last year in which he slept as long as he wanted, despite
a home life full of family dinners, despite a return to a country where he is
not just a local hero, but a national one -- despite all that, he asked his
agent to call the Red Wings. See if they were still interested.
What if they hadn't been? Would he have returned to play for the archrival but
goalie-desperate Colorado Avalanche?
"That would have been hard," he says, laughing. "Let's just say I'm glad the
Red Wings were interested. They saved me from that decision."
The three-headed monster
In return, Hasek forced the Wings into a decision of their own. By retaking
the starting goaltender's job, he rendered Curtis Joseph expendable. But at $8
million a year, expendable does not equal tradable.
So Hasek now sits two lockers away from Joseph, separated by backup goalie
Manny Legace, an uncomfortable situation made all the worse by the knowledge
that Hasek's previous decision, to quit, is the reason Joseph is there. When
you talk to Hasek about it, his voice lowers, as if speaking at a funeral
parlor, but he gives no quarter.
"We haven't talked too much," he says. "We shook hands. We both know the
difficulty of the situation. I had hoped this problem would have been solved
before training camp, but it is the way it is.
"From my experience, I know I need to play a lot of games. And Curtis, he
feels probably the same way. Of course, I would be more glad if there were
only two goalies. But management has to deal with this."
Bottom line: I'm back. Where's my mask?
During the Cup run in 2002, Hasek was inundated with questions about what he
would do if he finally won a title. His answer became stock: "I do not want to
even think about that now."
These days, when asked if he might tarnish a perfect ending with a
less-than-championship comeback, he oozes into a familiar answer: "I do not
want to even think about that now."
But everyone else will. He is the story of the season. A man on a mission,
living alone, cooking his one meal, fully focused. He is out on the cliff's
edge, below him a valley, above him, glorious sky. And tonight, as he takes
the big leap, fans will wonder: Does he still have his old wings? And do we
still have ours?
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch
Albom Show"3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
HOCKEY;RED WINGS