The Game: 30th Anniversary Edition

This book by former Montréal Canadiens Goalie Ken Dryden is nothing short of brilliant. It is certainly the best sports related biography I have ever read to this point in my life. As much as I enjoy Baseball biographies of former players of years gone by; this book by far outdoes them all. As a young lad growing up in Ontario Canada and prior to moving as a kid to Southern California – Ken Dryden was for me at the time a person I liked to despise – this of course due to my allegiance to the Toronto Maple Leafs. I have of course grown softer with age and with life experiences that have brought a reality of “not so tough” mentality; I have over the recent decade and a half followed the Montréal Canadiens as I do occasionally the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox (even though my MLB teams are the Anaheim Angels and Washington Nationals). A game of tradition, history, a rich past it is apparent the 1967 expansion changed the game forever. Bob Dylan once said “Reality Has Many Heads” – so no wonder I came to see in print within this book the same feelings I held but didn’t want to accept that the “Maple Leaf/Canadiens rivalry is dead….has been since the late 1960’s” There goes my childhood (LOL) even though I became a Los Angeles Kings fan and later Anaheim Ducks fan in Southern California. The Gretzky years in Los Angeles were both fun and invigorating – the loss of the 1993 Stanley Cup to Les Habitant de Montréal was the result of a game changer when Marty McSorley was tossed from a game by a referee for having too large a curve on his Hockey stick. I was at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles the night Wayne Gretzky scored goal number “802”.Mr. Dryden is first and foremost not a boaster of his sports accomplishments; he prefers to draw attention in his book to those around him who played positively with a work ethic incumbent upon any profession. He isn’t a “snob” either in that he references periodically through his books other great sports stars in a personal occasional comparison of the NBA, MLB, NFL and there is quite an interesting passage as well that reflects the personality of a goalie. He uses this reference of reflection in the same manner that he considers a Soccer star from Europe – it is apparent that “good” goalies have rather introverted tendencies – the last line of defense in both Soccer and Hockey. I have a personal opinion that Hockey Goalies in North America are more acutely in tune with their MLB Catchers counterpart – the bending is more frequent in Hockey than soccer and the position requires a tighter space to operate within (about the same space a catcher deals with only a bit higher and wider than the strike box). Home plate or a Hockey net require control and precise ability. Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings was drafted by both the NHL and MLB for his abilities as a player on both the Hockey and Baseball Collegiate teams he played for while attending the University of Massachusetts. Mr. Dryden won 5 Stanley Cups, was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 and took a year off of his NHL career to finish his law degree at McGill University in Toronto; but, he earned a B.A. in History at Cornell University – he later became a Canadian Politician elected to office in the Liberal Party – the Party that currently holds the Prime Minister’s Office of Canada. He won 76 of 81 collegiate starts while playing goalie for Cornell Big Red; in 1967 he helped the team win what we call today the “Frozen Four” for a Collegiate Championship.Mr. Dryden doesn’t brag about any of these personal accomplishments – he is most humble and is careful as to how he approaches his personal awards – his interest lay within the confines of his home and his family. Was great to read a sports book where there was no wife beating, no alcohol or steroid abuse, no arrests, and no need for intervention of any form at any part of his life. A brilliant Sports Biography – plain and simple. This is the 30th anniversary edition of the first edition printed in 1983; reprinted with an added chapter in 2013.

This is the first review I have written about a book. I felt compelled to write this review because of several compelling reasons. I am a longtime hockey fan and I’ve watched hundreds of games particularly during the 1970s. I am from Philadelphia and used to watch the Montréal Canadiens play at the Spectrum with Ken Dryden as goalie and Scotty Bowman as coach. Reading this book, took me back to the 70s in a profound way. Ken Dryden’s writing style is amazing and the details of what goes behind the scenes during games and practices across the “old” league made you feel like you were in the locker room with them. This book also brings to light what it is like to be a professional athlete, particularly in the 70s when the salaries were not high and the families had much less resources than today. This is also the first time I really appreciated an athlete, who struggled with the profession as it relates to other desires and priorities in life. This is the best hockey book I’ve ever read, and is very likely one of the best sports books. I will say it goes into great detail about some games and some of the hockey technicalities as it relates to plays and schemes, and an avid hockey fan would enjoy that kind of stuff. You absolutely will enjoy all that this book has this to offer.

A highly entertaining and informative book about old-timey hockey. He had great anecdotes about interactions between players, media, and management in the locker rooms and I LOVED the way he clearly conveyed what goes through a goalie's head during the game.One caveat: seeing as most of the events that this book described took place well before I was born, I had trouble telling a lot of the people apart. He assumes you know all of the Canadiens players from the 70s, their personalities, their playing styles. Maybe I'm just not the intended audience, but I kept having to Google people.But still, extremely well-written, funny, and heartwarming. Would recommend to any hockey fan.

This isn’t a book just about hockey it is a journey back to 1979 to be a part of an NHL dynasty.What a fantastic read. Ken puts you in goal right besides him as he travels through his final NHL season to win another cup.

I am an amateur adult recreational ice hockey player, age 69, started skating and learned to play when I went to college at Cornell. Dryden started there the year after I graduated, so we played at the same rink, but of course different times. This book has been called the best ice hockey book ever written. I completely agree. It is well written, the accounts are vivid, his personal insights are very interesting, and are so much about life as about ice hockey specifically. I liked it so much I bought another four copies to share with some of my team mates. Well, it does provide a lot of insight specifically about the develoment of ice hockey too, in terms of style of play, the significance of certain rule changes, and I expect tomorrow night when I step out onto the ice, I will be thinking of Dryden and connecting it together.

This was a fantastic book! I read it as a young man almost thirty years ago. I didn't get much out of it. It was a hockey book. I'm middle aged now. I've lived life. I get it now! I understand it now! It's about being fortunate to being able to succeed in your chosen profession, then when you think it's time to move on, you prepare to move on. I never played hockey, but I've been part of special teams at work. We were the best. Then attrition happens. I'm one of the last of my "team" still working in our industry. My time will come to move on. I don't know when, but I'll eventually know.