CBC Digital Archives

Ken Dryden discusses The Game

After just seven seasons in the NHL, Ken Dryden called it quits on hockey, despite winning the Stanley Cup six times while playing goal for the Montreal Canadiens. But he didn't completely leave the game behind. Four years after his last game, Dryden released his book The Game, an intimate look at hockey from behind the mask. In this 1984 interview with Harry Brown of CBC-TV's Take 30, Dryden explains why he left the game and recounts what stays with him.
• Upon the release of The Game, Globe and Mail sports columnist Trent Frayne described it as "the sports book of the year, or maybe the decade, or maybe the century." CBC Radio's Peter Gzowski was so enamoured of the book that he had Dryden on as a guest five mornings in a row to discuss it on Morningside. • "[The Game] tells us much that we didn't know, and is a fitting crown in all respects to Dryden's often magnificent contribution to the on-ice part of the game." - Scott Young, Globe and Mail sportswriter

• Born in 1947 and raised in a suburb outside Toronto, Ken Dryden grew up playing ball hockey in his backyard with his older brother, Dave, who also became an NHL goalie.

• While studying for his undergraduate degree at Cornell University in New York state, Dryden played for his school's hockey team, then began playing professionally in 1970.

• After leaving the game as a player, Dryden continued to be involved in hockey as a TV commentator for the 1980, '84 and '88 Olympic Games and as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs between 1997 and 2004.

• In 2004 Dryden entered politics, running for the Liberal Party in a Toronto riding in that year's federal election. He won and was an MP for seven years until his defeat in the 2011 election.

Medium: Television
Program: Take 30
Broadcast Date: Jan. 31, 1984
Guest(s): Ken Dryden
Resource: Harry Brown
Duration: 9:18

Last updated: March 19, 2012

Page consulted on February 28, 2014

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