Dominik Hasek is a special athlete and person. I saw him for the first time at the Blackhawks training camp in 1990. It was his first camp and my last -- I retired during the camp because of a bad left knee.

Something about Hasek's style caught my eye. Was it his style or lack of technique, though? He dropped his blocker to cover the puck. What was that? He did snow angels on rebounds and dekes. Could this street hockey style really work?

I sat in the stands for every practice. I studied him and his every movement. I marveled at his ability to "slow" the puck down as it came to his glove, almost like he was serving a pie, and how he cradled it in his glove. He could see the play develop before it actually did, like Gretzky, and then get in the right position to make a play and stop the puck. I listened to coach Mike Keenan attempt to give him the nickname "Doctor Dominik" before he became the "Dominator" in Buffalo.

I still wasn't convinced. Then I would go to the room and talk to the guys about Hasek and Ed Belfour (who would go on to win the Calder and the Vezina) and all they would say is they that couldn't score in practice on either guy, but especially this Hasek guy. They could not score.

When he went to Buffalo, John Muckler was the coach and he asked former Hawk Wayne Presley about Hasek. Presley raved after playing against him in practice and in the World Championships. Dom became the reason you watched the Sabres play. He was the focal point. They positioned players around him and gave him the ball. He instilled so much confidence in the room and on the ice. He made the players around him better. Don't all great players do that? With a lethal combination of quickness, agility and concentration, he could stop any shot he can see.

In Buffalo, I always felt that the Sabres were better and more dangerous when they gave up chances because it gave the opposition a false confidence that caused them to take careless chances in the offfensive zone. By the time they realized, Hasek had made two or three spectacular saves and the Sabres were down the ice on a 3-on-1 break. He could singlehandily change the momentum of a shift, let alone a game.

Hasek has the ability to step out of his crease, get set for the shot, and then back up and make the save like he's watching the puck come into his body. He makes the shooter think he's smaller than he is, that he has more holes available to the shooter. But then he stops the puck.

I have never seen a goalie with more will to stop the puck in close. Hasek will just never quit on a puck or a scoring situation. You can't start a goalie school and say we'll teach you to be like Dom Hasek, but you can stress his competitive fire and how he battled to keep a puck out of the net.

When you talk about Patrick Roy, you know he is technically one of the very best and a great innovator of the game. He gave the five-hole and took it away. In some situation, Hasek gave the shooter the entire net, and you wondered if he knew where the net was behind him. He knew. He always knew. He would smother you with a terrific "spine angle" or drop his blocker low to the ice before you actually shot the puck! Players second-guessed themselves against Dom. Great shooters doubted where they were going on him. He got into shooter's heads before the game started. Is there a greater compliment to give a goalie than that?

Dom is one of the greatest goalies in the history of our game. He made players around him better. I would have loved to see him come to the NHL when Hawks' assistant GM Jack Davison first scouted him in the mid-80s. I believe he would have become a 500-win goalie. The only problem is, I wouldn't have had a chance to play in this great league if he came here sooner.

Thanks, Dom. Thanks for your friendship. Thanks for letting me come to Prague to announce you were retiring four years ago. Thanks for opening the door to many more styles of stopping the puck and making it look fun along the way.

Darren Pang, a former goaltender with the Chicago Blackhawks, is a hockey analyst for ESPN.