Had he single-mindedly pursued a career as a goaltender and retired into obscurity, Ken Dryden would have been heartily eulogized around the hockey-loving world in the wake of his death on Friday at age 78 after a battle with cancer.

Dryden’s NHL career was as short as it was shockingly flawless. In a little more than seven seasons as the starting goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens, he won six Stanley Cups and five Vezina trophies as the league’s top netminder. Thrust into the Canadiens’ crease in the 1971 playoffs after playing just six regular-season games in the wake of a short minor-league apprenticeship, his backstopping of an underdog team to a championship and sustained excellence thereafter made him the only player in hockey history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff

See Full Page