Paired together for the first time for the Izvestia Cup in Moscow in 1979 — a precursor to the Lake Placid Olympic Games — the strangers got together for an introductory chat.
“We met for dinner at the International Hotel in Moscow the night before the tournament started. And we were sitting there, and I could tell right off the bat he was my kind of guy, and this was going to work really well,” Michaels told the Globe.
Dryden was a broadcasting newbie. Just months earlier, he retired following a spectacular eight-year run in the Canadiens’ net.
“So, he spent about five or six minutes at one point explaining to me the differences between international hockey and the 100-foot-wide rink and the NHL style hockey at 85 feet, and the cross-ice passing and the geometry, etc., etc. And it was fascinating,” recalled Michaels.
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Then Dryden had a question for Michaels.
“So, Ken finishes up and then he says to me, ‘Now do you think this is something that the American audience will be interested in?’ And I said, ‘Ken, they will be but let me introduce you to the world of broadcasting: Can you get it down to eight seconds?’ ” Michaels said. “So, we shared a big laugh over that and sure enough, you go back through some of those games that he did in Lake Placid, and his analysis was spectacular. He was able to get it down to eight seconds or less.”
Through the years, the two would often exchange that phrase, always producing laughter and conjuring up memories.
“It was our ongoing gag,” Michaels said.
Dryden, who won six Stanley Cups and broke countless Bruins fans’ hearts along the way, died Sept. 5 after a battle with cancer. He was 78.
“That hit me like a sledgehammer the other day. I didn’t know that Ken was sick or how long he’d been sick, but man, that was a bolt out of the blue,” Michaels said. “I share so many special memories with him, obviously, and being a part of what took place in Lake Placid in 1980, of course. I’ll always, always have a special bond with him.”
Growing up in the Toronto suburbs, Dryden was drafted 14th, ironically by the Bruins, in 1964, though Boston quickly traded the 16-year-old’s rights to the archrival Canadiens. Dryden then chose to enroll at Cornell, where he won 76 of 81 starts, including leading the Big Red to the 1967 NCAA championship with a win over Boston University.
He turned pro late in the 1971 season and impressed the Canadiens brass so much, he earned the starting job over veteran — and fellow Pro Hockey Hall of Famer — Rogie Vachon.
Dryden was tremendous in leading Montreal to the Cup, beating the defending champion Bruins with stars Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in the first round.
Esposito would later go on to call the 6-foot-4-inch Dryden — tall for a goalie in that era — “that thieving giraffe.”
Dryden, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP in 1971, then helped lead the Habs to five more Stanley Cups (1973, ‘76-79).
It was that fateful ’71 season where Michaels has one of his first memories of Dryden.
“So, irony of ironies. In 1971, I am the announcer for the Cincinnati Reds. I had just gotten the job. I’m 26 years old. We are in Montreal to play the Expos. This is in April. We get snowed out of a game, I think on a Friday. Somehow, some way one of us is able to procure six scattered tickets in the Montreal Forum for a Canadiens-Bruins playoff game,” Michaels said. “So, I am there in the balcony at the Montreal Forum, looking down at Ken Dryden in 1971. That was crazy. And then somehow what was really crazy is among the people who got one of our scattered tickets was Johnny Bench, who’s playing for us at the time, obviously. And Johnny not only goes to the game, but Johnny somehow winds up in the Canadiens’ locker room and takes a picture with Ken Dryden after the game.”
Dryden’s final appearance against the Bruins came in the infamous “too many men on the ice” game during the 1979 Stanley Cup semifinals.
Dryden rose to the occasion in the biggest of moments. He brought his ‘A’ game — he may not have had a ‘B’ version — and commanded that you bring yours. No one knew that better than Gerry Cheevers, so often his counterpart in the Boston net.
“One thing with Kenny is you couldn’t be bad and hope to beat him or their team,” Cheevers said before teeing off at the Bruins annual golf tournament. “And to me, he was the cherry on top of a great, great ice cream sundae.”
Those ’70s Canadiens teams were loaded with Hall of Famers: They had prolific scorers and superb defenders, but it was often Dryden who got them over the top — particularly in their battles with the Bruins.
“Not too many people say this, but they needed Kenny Dryden,” Cheevers said. “I didn’t really try to compete against him. I really tried to stay up with him and give my team a chance, give our team a chance, to win. But he was a good one.”
Following that final Cup and a fourth straight Vezina Trophy in ’79, Dryden decided he was done with hockey. He set his keen eye on broadcasting.
“That was the essence of the man, because Ken wanted to experience a lot of things in life and he experienced that hockey part of his life through the ’70s with gigantic success,” Michaels said. “But he was always far more interested in everything else. I mean, hockey was only a small part of what he was. And I was on a radio show [recently] I said, ‘We throw around the term renaissance man too casually, because sometimes a renaissance man is the guy who has read three books. Ken was a true renaissance man.’ ”
Dryden wore many hats following his playing days: broadcaster, author, politician, front office executive among them. He was also a master multitasker.
These days, Al Michaels calls the NFL’s Thursday night games on Prime.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Michaels witnessed that firsthand in Lake Placid.
“So, the fifth game the US played was the last game in the preliminary round against West Germany. That game was on a Wednesday night. And in winning that game, they cemented a spot in the medal round, which would start Friday against the Soviets,” Michaels said. “After the game on Wednesday night where the US defeated West Germany, a car picked Ken up at the arena, drove him to Ottawa, which is about a three-hour drive from Lake Placid. The next day, he took and passed, with flying colors, the bar exam. He then got back into the car and came back to Lake Placid late Thursday night and we did the game, the Soviet game, on Friday.”
Michaels’s call of “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!,” the “seminal moment of my career . . . but for Ken it was just another step along the way of doing 18 million things.”
The Michaels-Dryden broadcasting team reunited for two more Olympics — 1984 in Sarajevo and ′88 in Calgary.
Dryden authored a number of books, including “The Game,” which delved into those legendary Canadiens teams of the 1970s. It is considered by many the best hockey book ever written.
“To me, ‘The Game’ is as great a sports book as I’ve ever read. It’s phenomenal,” Michaels said. “Every word was his own — there’s no ghostwriting. He’s a brilliant guy, a brilliant guy. There’s no two ways about it.”
Dryden returned to the NHL in 1997 as president of the Maple Leafs. He left in 2004 and was elected to a seat in Canada’s Parliament. He was named Canada’s Minister of Social Development and was reelected in 2006.
Michaels said his last conversation with Dryden came a few months back, when Dryden told some stories for an upcoming documentary on Michaels’s storied career.
“In my career, probably I’ve done 25, 30 different sports. Crazy stuff from ‘Wide World of Sports’ like motorcycles on ice, and I probably worked with a hundred different analysts. Kenny was very unique in so many ways,” said Michaels. “I’ve had some wonderful guys, Cris Collinsworth, John Madden, and Tim McCarver. Doc Rivers. But Kenny was different. The only other analyst I think I worked with who I would compare to Ken was Arthur Ashe, who I did some tennis with back in the early ’80s. And they were very similar people. Thoughtful, elegant.”
Hampus Lindholm had his season cut short after a knee injury.
Matthew J Lee/Globe Staff
Healthy outlooks
Lindholms optimistic as Bruins gather
The Lindholms were all smiles.
Elias (training camp back injury) and Hampus (fractured kneecap) are coming off disappointing seasons, though both expressed a ton of optimism with Bruins training camp set to open Wednesday.
For his part, Elias, 30, a gifted two-way center, gutted through the back woes. He played all 82 games, scoring 17 goals and 47 points.
Though he indicated he’d like to put last season “in the trash,” the veteran was buoyed by the way he finished. He was plunked between David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie and the trio flashed consistently. Elias, who signed a seven-year, $54.25 million contract last spring, potted 6 goals and 15 points over the final 16 games.
“It was a good way to finish for me,” said Elias, who spent the offseason in his native Sweden after playing in the World Championships. “I got put in a position to play with those two and we had some good chemistry. It was pretty easy for me to go in there and play. It was good for me, and it was a boost. It carried over a little bit to the [Worlds]. So, I’m coming in here with some pretty good confidence, so hopefully we can do something good this year.”
Hampus Lindholm was playing great hockey when he was injured blocking a shot in St. Louis. He had surgery and appeared to be on his way back when some hardware from the original procedure started causing him irritation, necessitating a second procedure and ending his season.
He also missed a chance to represent Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off. The defenseman is hoping to suit up for Tre Kronor at the Olympics in February.
“Of course there’s a little extra fuel, not that you need that to play in the NHL, that’s fuel enough,” said Hampus. “But of course there’s a little extra excitement. I know if I play the hockey that I know I can, all the rest of it is going to take care of itself.”
Wild times
Guerin deals with negativity
Wild general manager Bill Guerin went into spin control after a report from the Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli indicating star left wing Kirill Kaprizov turned down an eight-year contract worth $128 million.
The deal would make Kaprizov, a free agent at the end of the season, the highest paid player by annual value ($16 million, $2 million more than the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl) and most money. (Alex Ovechkin signed a 13-year, $124 million in 2008.)
Guerin, the former Bruin and Boston College standout, addressed the report on the “10,000 Takes” show.
“My role as general manager is to protect our players,” he said. “I know two things. That info didn’t come from us, and it didn’t come from Kirill’s agent [Paul Theofanous]. I don’t know where it came from. Kirill’s agent and I have a very good relationship. We’re working through things. We’re not going to let things like this get in the way.”
If Kaprizov does sign before hitting free agency, it could start a domino effect with other high-profile pending UFAs (Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and the Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel, specifically) looking to cash in.
Kirill Kaprizov, 28, has put up 386 points in 319 career games for the Wild.David Becker/Associated Press
Loose pucks
Quiz time: Ken Dryden’s No. 29 is one of 15 sweater numbers (honoring 18 players) retired by the Canadiens. His No. 1 is one of only two retired numbers at Cornell. Name the other player and his number. Answer below … Leftover nugget from Al Michaels, who has had season tickets to the Kings the last 33 years. He once had a conversation with Dryden about whether Connor McDavid might be a better player than (gadzooks!) Wayne Gretzky. “I know it’s heresy,” said Michaels. “And I saw Gretzky play a lot because he was here for a number of years and Ken said he thought McDavid was the most skilled player he’d ever seen. And I think most people would agree with that.” With a laugh, Michaels added that if McDavid goes to free agency, “I hope your Bruins don’t get him and the Kings do.” … The Bruins open training camp Wednesday. Don’t blink: They’ll play their first exhibition game Sunday against the Rangers … Sidney Crosby addressed the myriad rumors he could end his career somewhere other than Pittsburgh, which has missed the playoff three seasons running. “I’m worried about playing for Pittsburgh,” Crosby said at the NHL/NHLPA media tour. “I haven’t seriously considered anything else.” But he added a bit of intrigue with “if it ever came to that point, I would discuss it. But I don’t think I’m there.” Check back at the trade deadline … Burgeoning Blackhawks star Connor Bedard is poised to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season, but the 20-year-old likely won’t be leaving the Windy City any time soon. “We’re both comfortable with where we’re at. They know I want to be there; I know they want me,” he said at the media tour. “So, it’s really not on my mind that much, and I just think when it happens, it’ll happen.” … Former Bruin Mark Mowers and John “Cappy” Capobianco were back at it last week, hosting a second annual mini golf tournament at Richardson’s in Middleton — get the Moose Tracks, you won’t regret it — to raise money for the Warrior For Life Fund. Former Bruins Terry O’Reilly, Rick Middleton, and Reggie Lemelin were among the competitors. The WFLF “focus support to active duty, veterans, and their families through sport and community as they navigate the unique challenges of combat deployment and life after service.” For more information, head to warriorforlifefund.org … Big stick tap salute to Jim Hoban, who recently wrapped up a 48-year career (yes, 48!) in the Globe sports department. Affectionately known as “Champ” because of his prowess in the ring, he also showed a deft hand running the nighttime operation, which on busy nights could resemble a three-ring circus. An avid Bruins fan (Bruce Shoebottom was a favorite), “Champ” is every writer’s best friend. If you’ve ever read a clever turn of phrase or a headline that stopped you in your tracks and made you want to jump into a Globe sports story, chances are “Champ” was the architect behind it. Hit ‘em straight, partner … Quiz answer: Joe Nieuwendyk (class of 1986) had his No. 25 sweater retired in a ceremony with Dryden in 2010.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.