Hasek handed one year suspension
Associated Press
6/4/2003
PRAGUE (AP) - Former NHL goaltender Dominik Hasek has been suspended from the Czech inline hockey league for a year after a bruising check during a game, the league's president said Wednesday.
The ruling follows a May 18 incident in Hasek's home town of Pardubice, 100 kilometres east of Prague. Hasek, who was playing as a skater for Bonfire Strida, collided with Martin Sila of SK Pardubice.
Sila spent three days in a hospital's neurosurgical ward and suffered a concussion and a broken nose.
``We ruled that what Dominik Hasek did was an unsportsmanlike conduct,'' said Ladislav Kopec, the president of the Czech Inline Hockey Association. He refused to elaborate on what the association discovered about the incident, nor what specifically he had done to warrant the charge.
The association also ordered Hasek to pay a fine of 2,000 koruna ($100 Cdn) - the highest possible fine in inline hockey here.
Hasek rejected the accusations last week, the CTK news agency reported.
``I am still convinced that everything just came out of the game, that I was fouled by him first. He denies this, but I don't agree that I did anything brutal,'' Hasek said.
The police are also investigating the case for any possible criminal charges against Hasek, CTK reported.
Hasek, 38, won six Vezina Trophies, two Hart Trophies and an Olympic gold medal with the Czech Republic at the 1998 Nagano Games.
He retired last year after winning the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings and now lives in Pardubice.