“I would not have called him to Russia”: brawler Hasek disappointed Spartak legend

Dominik Hasek has publicly demonstrated how easy it is to ruin the reputation of a respectable person. Recently, a prominent Czech hockey player has called for 15 years in prison for his compatriots for agreeing to work in Russia, which the two-time Stanley Cup winner and 1998 Nagano champion considers an enemy. In the country to which he devoted part of his career. This didn’t make Gashek any less of a great athlete, but as a person he appeared as an idle talker.

In the mid-2000s, it was common to hear regular announcements about his retirement from the Czech – just as often nowadays MMA star Conor McGregor speaks similarly. So in 2010 Hasek decided to save some money for retirement and moved to Spartak. Then Dominic spoke about the size of the club and its ambitions for the championship, but the team of the legendary Pan Milos Rzhiga hardly claimed the title, although the fans fell in love with them – not only red and white, but also other KHL clubs. . Still, Hasek’s arrival gave Spartak fans high hopes, but it’s hard to say that the star keeper has fully justified them.

On the one hand, the Czech goalkeeper became the best in the number of “dry” games in the regular season (7) and helped Spartak get into the playoffs. On the other hand, it affected the early dismissal of Rzhiga, who was loved by all. In the ten opening matches of the championship under Pan Milos, Hasek scored only two wins (including 5:1 against CSKA), conceded 30 goals and showed a very modest percentage of reflected shots (88.3), for which the time in the match with the only “breaker” “Atlant” was, it was still a defeat for “Spartak” in shooting.

A month after the start of the season, Riha was kicked out of the club. Andrei Potaichuk, the Czech coach’s former assistant, said in an interview with SE a few years later that Hasek was directly involved in the team’s failures. Moreover, this was reflected in the goalkeeper’s game and his behavior in the team.

Rzhiga did not hide his disappointment in Hasek. Pan Milos admitted that for several years he persuaded his compatriot to go to Spartak, and after a series of refusals he nevertheless achieved the coveted “Yes”. The legendary coach hoped that the famous goalkeeper would also benefit the team outside the hockey field and set an example for the youth, and he did not miss the high points for Dominic even before the start of the season. But after saying goodbye to the red-whites, Rzhiga made it clear that he would not invite Hasek to his club if he had the opportunity to turn back time:

Hasek, on the other hand, stressed that cooperation with Rzhiga is not a priority and did not take the initiative to talk heart-to-heart with the coach even after his dismissal. However, he denied the existence of an open conflict with the Czech specialist.

“I didn’t go to Rzhiga, I went to Spartak. That’s the point. Is it a conflict? I wouldn’t call it a conflict. I didn’t go to the lead with the phrase “remove Riga”. What a coach said. But the team was losing. And it was losing a lot. Maybe Milos is mine “He thought I was guilty. You can understand him, the situation was difficult. As a result, Rzhiga left. But it was definitely not because of Hasek.” words goalkeeper “Soviet Sport”.

Perhaps the suspicions about the goalkeeper “dumped” Rzhiga and have no basis, but with him Hasek did not seem as convincing as after the dismissal of Pan Milos. Whether this was due to adaptation to Russian conditions, but under Igor Pavlov, who did not miss the opportunity to openly criticize Rzhiga, and especially Andrey Yakovenko, the Dominican began to drift. But the Czech’s subsequent journey was short-lived. After losing to SKA in the first round of the KHL playoffs, Hasek took a career break and eventually retired without waiting for new offers.