Ken Dryden, the goalkeeper of the Hall of Fame, whose long curriculum vitae inside and outside the hockey included six victories of the Stanley Cup and helping the victory that defined the generation of Canada in the series of the 1972 summit, died Friday at the age of 78 years after a battle against cancer.
A key member of the Dynasty of the 70s of the Montreal Canadiens, Dryden’s career at the Care Center just started when he retired from the game, and while he was at the top of his own game, in his 30 years.
Lawyer, author, politician and executive of the NHL, would continue to leave an indelible brand in large stripes of the broader Canadian society.
Born on August 8, 1947 in Hamilton, Ontario, Dryden grew up in a suburb of Toronto with his parents, brother and sister.
Selected by the Boston Bruins with the 14th selection in the NHL Draft of 1964 before an exchange of Montreal, Dryden played the American university hockey at the University of Cornell and finally made his debut in Canadienens in March 1971.
He pressed the fold of the veteran Rogie Vachon that spring and led to the original Six franchise to the cup along with ensuring the Conn Smythe trophy as Playoffs MVP.
Dryden later won the Calder trophy as a rookie of the NHL year in 1971-72, but Montreal lost that postseason in the first round.
He directed the fold with Tony Esposito five months later in the series of the 1972 summit, a fight between Canada and the Soviet Union that became a metaphor of the Western struggle against communism in the height of the Cold War.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Summit series, the NHL Ken Dryden Legend shares his memories of playing in one of the biggest games in the history of hockey, and reflects on how he transformed the game.
Dryden detailed his version of the events in “The Series: What I Remymber, What It Senty, which is now felt” published in 2022.
“I don’t remember flying to Montreal. I don’t remember the day of the game. I don’t remember the costumes,” he wrote about game 1. “Everything I remember is a feeling that continued building and building, growing and growing. It is what happens before a series of the Stanley Cup, before a Stanley Cup final, but not.
“It was built as far as I could not build, it grew where it did not take place to grow, then built and grew a little more.”
Dryden bounced
After losing the first game in the Montreal forum and game 4 in Vancouver, Dryden recovered to collect a 3-2 decision in a 6-gain game of essential gain in Moscow.
Canada defeated the Soviets 4-3 in game 7 with Esposito. Dryden returned to the network for game 8 when Paul Henderson scored at the last minute to ensure a memorable 6-5 victory, and triggered wild celebrations to an ocean.
“I feel the story of that tournament, the legacy of that team as strongly as all Canadian fans,” Dryden told the Canadian press in a 2022 interview. “It never leaves. It’s like a good wine, I guess.
“Actually, the legacy of the same grows.”
Dryden lifted the Cup with the Canadians in 1973 and four consecutive times between 1976 and 1979 as part of Montreal Juggernauts that included his companions Guy Lafleur, Sergard Savard and Larry Robinson.
The five-time time winner as the best goalkeeper of the NHL described a single week at the end of the 1978-79 season in his book “The Game” published in 1983.
“When a game approaches me, or threatens to approach, my conscious mind is blank,” Dryden wrote. “I don’t feel anything, I don’t listen to anything, my eyes look at the album, my body moves, as a goalkeeper moves, as I move; I do not tell him to move or how to move or where, I don’t know what moves, I don’t feel he moves, but moves.
“And when my eyes look at the album, I see things that I don’t know what I am seeing.”
Known for resting his blockers and gloves on his stick in a relaxed way that became one of the most recognizable poses of the hockey, the six -foot and four goalkeeper retired only 31 years in 1979.
Dryden continued to follow a career in the law, he articulated in a Toronto company while sitting in the 1973-74 NHL season, after obtaining a title at the McGill University of Montreal.
Induced in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, he accumulated a record of 258-57-74 with a.
Dryden’s first incursion into writing after hanging his skates and placed his stick for the last time was The game.
Several other books would continue to cedir, including a biography of his Canadiens coach, Scotty Bowman.
President of Maple Leafs
Dryden served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1997 to 2004, a stretch accentuated by trips to the final of the ESE conference both in 1999 and 2002, before giving up to enter politics.
He was running for federal liberals in 2004 and was appointed Minister of Social Development in the cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Dryden, who also taught at several universities in Canada, clung to his seat in the center of York in Toronto in 2006 when the liberals were expelled, and again in 2008, but lost in 2011.
His book The series His goal to bring the Canadians to the world of players in 1972 when they faced the Soviets.
“The only way to do it would be like putting them there, literally putting them there at that time,” Dryden said about 50 years later. “And the moment, of course, is not just the moment, are the moments of leadership until that.
“And then, what would he have been within us as players? What would he have been within us like 22 million Canadians at that particular moment that made us react as we did? And generate the type of vehement and vivid memories that have emerged from it.”
Tributes to Dryden
Tributes for Dryden have been reached in the hockey and politics worlds.
“Ken Dryden was an exceptional athlete, but he was also an exceptional man,” said Geoff Molson, owner and president of the Montreal Canadiens. “Behind the mask was bigger than life. We regret today not only the loss of the cornerstone of one of the biggest hockey dynasties, but also a family man, an attentive citizen and a gentleman who deeply impacted our lives and communities in generations.”
In a publication about X, Prime Minister Mark Carney described Dryden as a “Canadian hockey legend and a member of the Hall of Fame, Public Server and Inspiration.”
“His return to university in the apogee of his career as a player taught the importance of balance in life. His post-hockey career demonstrated the value of public service,” said Carney.
“Few Canadians have given more, or have remained higher for our country.”
Dryden is survived by his wife Lynda and his two children.
