Sour Grapes
Of course we're Fair and Balanced!

2004-07-13

Ken Dryden redux



In 1974, with the Philadelphia Flyers on their way to their first Stanley Cup, I became enthralled with the sport of hockey. It was in 1971, however, that I first became enthralled with a particular series of hockey games.



That year, the Black Hawks played the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup and led the series 2-0 and 3-2. They led in the final game by as much as 2 goals, until Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard, scored Montreal's third goal at 2:33 of the third period. I was in my third year of college. Some of us got sucked into watching the series on TV in the women's dorm with a large contingent of Canadians. It quickly devolved into a [relatvely] friendly U.S.A. vs. Canada cheering match.



Among the other more memorable of the Canadiens were Guy Lapointe, Jacques Lemaire, the Mahovlich brothers, Frank & Pete, and Henri Richard. Larry Robinson, future nemesis of the Flyers, was not there yet. Among the Black Hawks were Tony Esposito and Bobby Hull, who, at #31, was one of only six hockey players among ESPN's top 100 athletes of the 20th Century and who, with Stan Mikita, invented the curved hockey stick.



And then there was the Canadiens' Ken Dryden. He had played in six NHL games. Nonetheless the 3-time All-American from Cornell University won the Conn Smythe Trophy (but wasn't awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy until 1972, when he played 64 regular season games). He posted a 8-season career record of 258 wins, 57 losses and 74 ties, with 46 shutouts (as well as going 80-32-0 with 10 shutouts in the playoffs); achieved a goals-against-average of 2.24 (2.40 in the playoffs); led the Canadiens to 6 of their record 24 Stanley Cups; and won outright or shared 5 Vezina Trophies.



Now, Mr Dryden is again in the news:





Ken Dryden makes transition from hockey to politics



Montreal Canadians legend Ken Dryden is going to Parliament.



Dryden, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and winner of six Stanley Cups with the Habs, successfully captured the north-end Toronto riding of York Centre as a Liberal MP in Monday's federal election....



Dryden is also an accomplished author, lawyer and scholar with doctorates from McMaster University and York University as well as the University of British Columbia, University of Ottawa and University of Windsor.




No wonder I liked him so much [via Snoofmadrune].



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