Dominik Hasek attacks Ovechkin, his son, and Gary Bettman.

It may very well be that legendary National Hockey League goaltender Dominik Hasek has now damaged his relationship with the NHL beyond the point of repair.

Over the weekend Hasek unleashed a tirade against the league on social media when he attacked the league's commissioner Gary Bettman, Washington Capitals star forward Alex Ovechkin, and even Alex's son Sergei Ovechkin over the fact that the Russian superstar was allowed to participate in the NHL All-Star Game.

Since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Hasek has called on the league to end any promotion or platforming of Russian athletes currently playing in the NHL. This isn't limited to athletes that have aligned themselves with Russia's current goals in Ukraine, but rather a blanket ban on all Russian athletes regardless of their views simply for being Russian themselves.

Although this rhetoric from Hasek is not shocking given some of his previous comments on the ongoing situation in Ukraine and how it relates to the NHL, the tone of Hasek's comments over the weekend took a much more spiteful and vindictive tone than they have in the past.

From Hasek:

The NHL has sunk to rock bottom! Letting Ovechkin's son perform on the ice at the NHL All-Star is spitting in the face of approximately 500 killed, thousands injured and tens of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children. The NHL and Gary Bettman must pay for this heinous act!

The idea that the NHL is promoting Russia's invasion of Ukraine by having Ovechkin and his son out on the ice is of course an absurd one. If anything it seems like the NHL has deliberately avoided any mention of this topic when it comes to its Russian athletes, possibly over safety concerns when it comes to those very same athletes, many of whom have families still currently living in Russia.

Hasek himself is quite clearly very invested in the ongoing conflict and, as a young man who grew up behind a political boundary established by the former U.S.S.R. that was then known as "The Iron Curtain," it is hard to blame him for having strong feelings on the topic. That being said, I don't believe that this latest outburst is going to achieve the goals he is striving for.