The Goalie Who Retired Because The NHL Was Too Easy...
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- čas přidán 1. 09. 2023
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Renowned as a goaltending legend, Ken Dryden's bold retirement from his prime led him into politics after a storied stint with the Montreal Canadiens, earning 6 Stanley Cups and 5 Vezina Trophies in just 8 seasons. His NHL legacy is just a glimpse into his captivating life; beyond the rink, he thrived as a politician and respected author, showcasing exceptional talents that transcended the challenges of the NHL. - Sport
Please read his book "The Game" In it he says why he retired. He saw that other teams, The Islanders were up and coming. He also saw the Habs were going to rebuild. He did not want to be part of the rebuild, so he retired. It was not that he thought the NHL was too easy. He also knew how good the team in front of him was.
I read the book too, and you're right.
Agreed. The title of this video is just wrong. This guy needs to do better research.
The title was maybe clickbait. In the actual video, though, the topic of the NHL being too easy doesn't come up until the closing sentence...and he says "it's almost as if" it was too easy for Dryden, only after running through all of the other challenges he took on and successes he had in other walks of life.
An awful lot of b.s. in this story. Dryden was an NHL calibre goalie who played behind the best team in the league for 6 years. The Habs would have won those 5 Stanley Cups with just about any goalie. Then he gets to play behind a powerhouse Team Canada in the 72 Summit Series against the Soviets. It's interesting to note that when the team was caught off guard in game 1, he let in 7 goals. Never had to play for a weak team his whole career like Don Edward's who usually faced 40 shots a game with Buffalo. For Dryden to imply that it was too easy is laughable.
@@billboggs6641 Well, I distinctly recall a stretch in the 1979 finals against the Rangers where Dryden was struggling. I was just a kid, but I remember always thinking the Habs should have played Bunny Larocque more all the way through that dynasty era. So because Dryden was struggling, they put Larocque in. Don't remember if he won the start, buy they went back to Dryden afterwards and the rest is history.
He didn't leave hockey to pursue politics, he was going back to finish his law degree
IKR??
His book, "The Game" is a fantastic read for anyone that wants an inside look of pro hockey. However, I never felt Dryden was a great goalie just a good goalie. The 70's Canadiens may have been the best team ever assembled losing rarely over the years between 1975-79. You could have put just about anyone in the Habs net back in the 70's and they would've done well. Their starting 7 D in those years were Larry Robinson, Guy LaPointe, Serge Savard, Pierre Bouchard, Brian Engblom, Gilles Lupien,and Rod Langway. Even Dryden admitted it was his blueline that gave him the career he had. Up front were greats like Lafleur, Shutt, Doug Jarvis, Gainey, and Lemaire as well as many others making playing goal for the Habs a walk in the park. Dryden in his book, "The Game", mentioned how he could let in a bad goal and he knew the team would get it back.
having a career of only 8 seasons and still having 6 stanley cups is absolutely ridiculous
I agree
Dryden made every big save he had to make. Don’t ever underestimate that.
I am doing this off the top of my head, so my numbers may be a little off, but they should be close. Best season ever by any NHL team, only eight losses in 80 games! Tied with Jacque Plante for second most wins in a single season by a Canadiens goalie (42)! Almost as many career shut outs as losses, 56L-46SO! Part of the second greatest hockey dynasty in NHL history, 4 cups in a row, 76-77-78-79(tied with the Islanders) Dave Dryden and Ken Dryden, the only goal tending brothers in the NHL history face each other in a game! Goalie of choice for team Canada during the 72 summit series.
That 60-8-12 ( I believe it was 387 goals for and 173 goals against, the greatest goals differential in NHL history) = 132 pt. Season. The Habs only lost one game on home ice. I couldn't recall who they lost too that season.
Once the Forum closed I got the book from the Canadiens on the Forum. It has in it all the game results ever played in the Forum. That said I began looking through the results that 76-77 season. I was thinking as I scrolled through the scores that I hope they didn't lose to the Boston Bruins.... I get to December 76 and bang I see the loss.. DAMMIT! it was the Bruins 😂. That did not surprise me because Don Cherry's Boston Bruins were the second best team during the mid to late 70's.
Btw the Toronto Make Believes are not Montreal Canadiens best rival is... It's the Boston Bruins. They have had so many great playoff series vs. my beloved Habs.🤗
Grew up with Dryden and the rest of the habs in the seventies...Goalies in those days were like super heroes...His mask...his stance...unbelievable memories!
overrated and wha thappened when he played the russians
Completely underrated in the current era
The first genius Hockey player to ever play. Such a deep soul. His book "The Game" is the hockey bible.
He first retired to go back to school. He went into politics long after he retired for good.
Dryden spent a whole weekend at my house when i was a teen ager, in Moncton NB. was one of my favorite childhood memories. My old man was the Dean of the Ceps faculty (Sports faculty) at the University Du Moncton, and Dryden was the head of university hockey league. And in a game, Moncton was playing PEI, and a brawl broke out, and a ref got punched out, so Dryden had to come down. And my old man already knew Dryden, and somehow convinced him to stay at our house for the weekend. They drank ALL weekend, was funny to hear them talking. I drank with them one night, got to wear the Habs Stanley Cup ring!! I could put all 4 of my fingers in his ring! lol, I have pretty small hands, but still!!! he was an awesome guy, super down to earth, him and my old man drinking were swearing as much as me and my teen age friends did when we drank! lol. I have been a Habs fan for about 45 years, so i was super happy to get the opportunity to not just meet him, but get drunk with him! lol. He was so nice. I have a bunch of pics, and he signed a bunch of things for me too. They're in the attic somewhere, but i will cherish the memories forever.
That’s awesome
What a memory!
I'm trying to imagine Dryden in that super-serious, academic, professional voice swearing like a drunk teenager, ha! That would be fun to witness!!
He’s a legend and it’s wild how he walked away like that
False title man. He retired because his team was headed for a complete tear down and rebuild and with the islanders on the rise he wanted nothing to do with the whole process so he retired.
Oh really? Is that what you think? OK.Dryden had a .750 Stanley Cup winning percentage over his illustrious career. Let that sink in. Marinate on that for a while.
8 season's 6 Stanley Cups, I remember that run it felt good the 70's lol
Great video, but one small nitpick. During Dryden's career, the Vezina wasn't the trophy for the best goaltender in the league like it is now. It was for the goalie(s) on the team with the fewest goals in the regular season. It was what the Jennings trophy is now.
That is true
Ken Dryden was my sports hero as a kid. I played goal in minor hockey and in my mind was going to be the next Ken Dryden😂 it didn't work out that way 😂. I love the Habs I got to see them win 8 Stanley Cups, it was a great time to be a Habs fan.
Love Dryden..but Tony O is the guy they should have used exclusively in the Summit Series....Ruskis couldnt figure out the butterfly.
Also no HHOF Habs defense.
Not that it matters much, but the video at 1:09 is not Cornell ; Dryden is leaving McGill's Law Faculty on Peel Street and heading down Peel Street to downtown Montreal.
Concerning his 1st retirement after the 73 season in that Dryden was unique in that the team needed him more than he needed to play the game. The Habs quickly learned that the tandem of Wayne Thomas, Michel Plasse and Michel Laroque were all solid but not spectacular. So the Habs gave in to Dryden. His return for the '74-75 season was his worst statistacally as he had to shake off some rust but bounced back over the next 4 seasons. HAd he not held out in '73-74 or retired at the end of '79, Montreal most likely have taken one of the Cups from Phili and possibly have won 5 in a row (1980).
a year after Canadiens were sold from Bromfman to Molson's; same time retiring as Bowman, but thats not the most interesting part, 3 years of scoring by LaFleur (a multi 50 goal season scorer) at 27 goals each season .... Bowman is allowed to leave Montreal to go to another division contender, in Buffalo.
Retired EARLY with 6 Stanley cups
3 Conn Smyth one before winning Calder trophy
Lawyer
Politician
Super impressive guy!
You may be thinking of Roy, Dryden had 1 conn smythe
Martin Brodeur should of won a conn smythe
You sure this isn’t just Jeffery dahlmer
Could be...I know he ate my Bruins for lunch many times.
@@billsouza4457😂
Hardest hockey was with the Canada National Team 1969
That team played several times against Russian National Team
He played the best team in the world well before 1972
Please do a video on Maurice Richard!
Being a tender is never easy!!!! This is the toughest position on the ice!!!!
In fairness, goaltending is easy when you have one of the greatest dynasties in NHL history in front of you. Interesting stat: Ken Dryden's back-up goalie Michel "bunny" Larocque also had an extremely low goals against average when playing for the Montreal Canadiens. When he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, his goals against average skyrocketed. Carey Price is a more impressive habs net minder. He had to carry very mediocre habs teams with no real scoring stars on those teams.
Some people just don’t know how to lose, at anything.😮
Dryden also had the worst case of verbal diarrhea known to mankind.
Must be tough being such an idiot I’m guessing when you walk into a room the conversation stops and when you leave you hear snickers
Pompous as hell. Pretentious also. When he came back Bowman said , " Kenny, you think your better than others?"
Dryden actually wrote about this in "The Game", and I remember this era vividly as an old Flyers fan. In 1972-73, the Canadiens often started games slowly, and relied on Dryden to keep them in the game until they got going, which they usually did (only lost 10 regular season games, and won the Cup). Dryden admitted he had a bit of an attitude about the team's slow starts and would act out during games, slamming his stick on the ice after letting in a goal. Bowman confronted him in practice about whether he through he was too good for the team, and Dryden (to his credit) came to understand that Bowman was right, although by his own admission he sulked through the rest of the season.@@daveyboy_
Actually, Dryden tried to renogotiate his contract. He was into his 3rd year of his contract and decided not to honour it.
Too easy? By his own admission, he was so depressed after the Soviet team shelled him in the opening game of the ‘72 Summit Series, he didn’t want to leave his hotel room.
It's easy to be great when you have a STACKED team in front of you! 13 hall of famers on that team including 3 defence. The HABS up until the first expansion draft of 1973 had EXCLUSIVE rights to French Canadian hockey players! That team was the BEST NHL team ever! If the Leafs had exclusive rights to Ontario players... can you say... Orr, Hulls, Espositos, and on and on!
Hey Boston drafted him and gave Dryden up. Toronto wiffed on getting Orr. During the Original Six Era there was sponsorship lists where teams would line-up amateur players from teams dotting the map. Montreal, through Frank Selke established a huge network. At one point, there was an army of players on numerous teams across the continent making them part of the Canadiens’ farm system. That talent pool Mr. Selke had assembled was larger than the other five NHL teams combined could muster. Montreal had the most to lose with the creation of the Amateur draft in 1963. The NHL recognized that fact and granted the Canadiens the choice of either drafting in turn with other teams or selecting two French Canadian players of their choice before any other team had made a selection as a form of compensation. There was no dissention on Montreal being allowed this option by the other teams and it was granted. This option was rarely used. Over the first five years of the entry draft Montreal never took advantage of their French Canadian option. The first time it was put into play was in 1968 when they picked goalie Michel Plasse and forward Roger Belisle. The Canadiens next used option in 1969 to select Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif before the other teams drafted in regular order and that was the final year for the French Canadian rule as it was voted out that season. Sam Pollock was the 1st GM who really understood the draft and would often trade fringe or aging players for picks.
Dryden himself was one of the key Hall of Fame level players on the team; he was a major part of the "stack"...
Salaries were not either what they are today. A top player like Dryden in his best year would make 1 million in a year in today's money.
Another great video for my lunch break
Same😂
Winning goalie in the ‘72 Summit Series.
Dude won cups
Loved him, but never should have stuck around to shoot for 5. Same with remained and scotty. And I think Yvan C. Retired too. 😢
He didn't steal anything he earned it
Homer Simpson could have played goal for the Canadians during those years and won multiple Stanley Cups?
Duh!
Misleading and superficial header.
"All this success must have gotten pretty boring for Dryden....it was his desire to excel in other fields."
You might have a career with the Toronto Sun.
The hard way
Enjoyable video but your assertion that the NHL was "too easy" for Dryden becomes reckless speculation when you claim it pushed him to retire. Great athletes can make it look easy, but I read Dryden felt he had lost his edge by 1979 playoffs and no longer wished to pursue on-ice competition.
He was impossible to score I know I watched him play
It's a vast oversimplification to say he retired because "the NHL was too easy."
ken dryden is the most overrated athlete of all time. He sucked with team canada in 1972, he played on a montreal dynasty team
Can’t deny that he dominated in the NHL though
@@HecticHockey Perry tried to do exactly that by saying "he played on a montreal dynasty team" meaning that it was the other players and not Dryden who were the cause of the dynasty.
I'll try to set him straight.
The above states "In his third season he won the Stanley Cup and the Vesina trophy as the leagues best goaltender."
The next year they allowed 56 more goals than the previous year and were out of the playoffs in the first round."
Perry you can't ignor those things.
I know he had one of the best teams ever in front of him but had he stayed instead of taking that year off who knows?
They may have won 2, 3 more cups than they did those years.
Another book-the author escapes me-had a player state, paraphrasing "There were long stretches where play was for the most part in the other teams' end yet when it did come down in front of Dryden he was there when it counted. He was better than most."
I've watched lots of games and many times that's the case. The fellow admitted, grudgingly, how good Dryden was.
A goalie who's faced 40 shots wins the game yet the goalie who lost only faced 25.
Dryden was ready when he had to be and if he hadn't taken that year off Montreal would have won more cups than they did.
@@jimmiller6704 Please explain how they could have won 2-3 more cups in one year. 😅
I never posted 2-3 more cups in one year, no team can do that.
I posted "2, 3 more cups than they did those years."
Dryden took a year off because he wasn't happy with his offer, they may have won a cup that year.
The next they didn't win a cup either, had they won the year he took off they may have won another.
Philadelphia won two years in a row, had Dryden not taken that year off they may have won those cups instead of Philly.