HEALTHY, WEALTHY AND WISE

This is not the same worn-down Dominik Hasek who was ready to pack it in a year ago. Look at how much fun he’s having.

During a break in practice, Sabres defenseman Jay McKee begins flipping pucks at the Buffalo net. Rather than catching the fluttering shots, Hasek manages to bounce them off his helmeted head to the point where black paint starts chipping off the top of his cage.

“We started that a few years ago,” McKee said laughing, adding that the routine hasn’t knocked any sense into Hasek yet.

Hasek, sitting nearby, doesn’t hear, consumed by another of his meticulous passions--comparing the ingredients of several sports drinks.

Yes, Hasek has his quirks. He can be flakey and temperamental. But that belies his drive and competitive nature, key reasons he’s back between the pipes, refocused and rejuvenated, a year after he announced his retirement.

“I feel hungry again,” he said. “I feel completely different from a year ago.”

It helps that his injured groin has fully healed after he missed 40 games last season. And while he didn’t think of it last April, when the Sabres were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs by Philadelphia, the long summer off has given him added rest and perspective.

It had been a long haul.

Before the start of last season, Hasek had appeared in 176 games over a 22-month span, including playoffs and the Nagano Olympics, where he helped the Czech Republic win a gold medal.

Mentally and physically drained, Hasek announced last September that the 1999-2000 season would be his last. Four months later, while sitting out bored and frustrated recovering from his injury, Hasek had a sudden change of heart.

“I never experienced it before,” Hasek said of his unscheduled midseason break. “And all of a sudden, I thought more, and I felt I cannot retire like this. That’s why I want to play again. ...

“I feel like there’s something still in me, and I can still do something for the Sabres.”

Today, the 35-year-old Hasek won’t discuss retirement. “After I play the last game with the Buffalo Sabres, I’ll let you know,” he said.

Asked what it would take for him to retire, Hasek replied: “If I feel I cannot play better, if I cannot give anything else to this team, then it’s going to be over.”

Hasek’s return is a blessing for the Sabres, who believe that with a healthy “Dominator” in net anything is possible.

“Goaltending is paramount to anything else,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “You can run into injuries, your offense can go south for a while, and you know you can still win games 1-0.”

Entering his 11th NHL season, Hasek remains one of the game’s top--if not the most exciting--goalies. He is a two-time MVP, five-time Vezina Trophy winner as the best goalie, and has led the NHL in save percentage for seven straight seasons.

Hasek even has a patented save, the one where he slides in one direction but manages to flop himself backward and reach blindly behind him with his glove to stop shots.

As New Jersey Devil and fellow Czech native Patrik Elias put it: “He never gives up on any play. You think that you’ve beaten him and all of a sudden he throws a glove in the spot that you’re shooting at.”

Elias, who played in exhibition games with Hasek in their homeland last summer, saw the goalie’s competitive side up close.

“He learned from that that you don’t say it’s over until you feel it’s over,” Elias said. “He said that he missed a lot of games and still had the drive for hockey and wanted to play more games.

“He said that he doesn’t quit in a situation that he was in.”

The only thing missing on Hasek’s resume is a Stanley Cup, another key element that brought him back.

“You think about it almost every day,” he said.

The Sabres, with the additions of Doug Gilmour, Chris Gratton and Dave Andreychuk, appear to have the depth and experience they lacked in 1999 when they lost the finals in six games to Dallas.

Hasek likes the team’s makeup.

“There is a different attitude because last season was disappointing for everyone in this locker room,” he said. “Everyone wants to be better.”

Himself included.

There is a Czech saying which, roughly translated, means: “Something bad is good for something.”

Hasek believes there is truth in those words, especially after last year.

“I believe always that things sometimes don’t go the smooth way, that you are not always on the top,” he said. “But you think about it, why it happened, what you could do better to improve. That’s the way I’ve always done it in my life, and I believe it’s right.”