Canada mourns the loss of Ken Dryden, the thoughtful giant of hockey, law, politics, government and sports journalism.

The winner of six Stanley Cups for the Montreal Canadiens, Dryden, 78, died of cancer on Sept. 5. In his first memorable season in the NHL, he was called up to the team and won his first Cup before he had even completed his rookie year.
 
Then, before he had to and at the peak of his game, Dryden retired from paying hockey in in his early thirties.
 
All those of a certain age can remember the 1972 Russia-Canada Summit Series. Nervous nationals of this country were on edge because Canada’s dominance of “our game” was being challenged by nations like Russia, with their fast-skating and ingenious passing of the puck.
 
This writer was in second year at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. at the time of the Summit series. Students crowded into the unlit gloom of a basement common room to watch the games on a back-and-white television. Like most Canadians we were disgusted by the domination of the Canadian team by the Russians in the games in Canada.
 
This prompted the great centre, Phil Esposito, to scold the booing fans and the sceptical media for their response to those early games. “I am completely disappointed…we play because we love our country,” Esposito said in a passionate speech which ignited the whole country and turned the series around.

Three thousand Canadian fans made the trip to Moscow for the second half of the series. Besides Paul Henderson scoring the winning goal with 34 seconds remaining in the final game to clinch the series for Canada, there were many sterling performances in those final games, but none better than Ken Dryden, standing on his head to make spectacular saves. After each whistle Dryden, in his signature way, would lean on his goalie stick to rest his six-foot-four frame and take stock of the next move in each game.
 
Other standouts for the Canadian team included the spin-o-rama Serge Savard, and the lightning breakaway skater Yvon Cournoyer. The great Bobby Orr could not play for the Canadians because of his recurring knee problems.

The Russians were not without stars, including the great goalie Vladislav Tretiak, and power forward Valeri Kharlamov, and smooth performer, Alexander Yakushev.
 
To recover their national pride, the Canadian players were desperate to win, and this produced unfortunate moments, such as Bobby Clarke giving Kharlamov an aggressive chop with his stick, cracking the ankle of the Russian.
 
Ken Dryden had an unconventional route to the top of hockey. Born in Hamilton, Ontario he grew up in the suburbs of Toronto. He played college hockey at Cornell University. He led Cornell to the 1967 NCAA championship, the team’s first, and compiling an amazing 74-4-1 record over three varsity seasons.
 
He chose to finish his university education and attended law school at McGill University in Montreal. When called up to the Canadiens he won all six of his regular season starts and then was the team’s goalie through a spectacular playoff run, winning the 1971 Stanley Cup as the best player in the playoffs and also the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie the following year.
 
The hockey legend continued, winning five Vezina trophies as the league’s best goaltender. Dryden withdrew from hockey for the 1973-74 season to finish his law degree at McGill. He then returned to the Canadiens, adding five more Stanley Cups.
 
Following his retirement after the 1978-79 season, his No. 29 jersey was retired by the Canadiens in 2007. He entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, in his first year of eligibility.
 
From there, Dryden filled various roles as a lawyer, teacher and then, incongruously for a Canadiens man, he served from 1997-2004 for Canada’s other great NHL franchise, the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also proved himself to be a great writer, publishing in 1983 his book “The Game”, arguably the best sports book ever written.

His career goes on from there, winning election as the Liberal MP for York Centre in 2004, serving as Minister of Social Development until 2006, when he ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Liberal Party.
 
Dryden’s accomplishments are obviously impressive, but he showed his deep humanity in a 1922 interview with Sports Net about another hockey legend, Guy Lafleur. He described Lafleur as a “small town kid” who grew up in “very modest circumstances”.
 
As a Quebec player in the shadow of such Quebecois greats as Rocket Richard and Jean Belliveau, Lafleur had a difficult role, under the scrutiny of the six Montreal daily newspapers at the time, two English and four French. Lafleur was a fantastic performer on the ice, the first NHLer to score 50 goals in six consecutive seasons, but for him the off-ice pressure was difficult, and Dryden obviously felt for him.
 
As a smoker, “The Flower” as English media announcers liked to call him,
LaFleur died of lung cancer.
 
It is a measure of the man, that Dryden could understand the tough parts of hockey life for LaFleur, another gifted player who new the pressures of being a Montreal hockey idol.

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