Ken Dryden's Canadians #29 to be retired tonite

Dryden to have No. 29 retired at Monday ceremony
Associated Press

MONTREAL -- Ken Dryden says having his number retired will connect him to other great players in the Montreal Canadiens' history.

Dryden's No. 29 is to be raised to the Bell Centre ceiling in a ceremony before the Canadiens game against the Ottawa Senators Monday night.

"The greatest were the stars you saw when you were nine or 10 years old," Dryden said Sunday. "They looked like they could skate and shoot 100 miles per hour.

"The people with their names on the banners here like [Jacques] Plante and [Doug] Harvey were of a different dimension. You never connect yourself to that."

Several Canadiens stars of the past and other guests, including former Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, are expected to join the ceremony.

The 59-year-old Dryden is to become the 12th player in Canadiens history to have his jersey retired and the second this season. Former defenseman and general manager Serge Savard's No. 18 was raised on Nov. 18.

Other retired numbers are No. 1 for Jacques Plante, No. 2 for Doug Harvey, No. 4 for Jean Beliveau, No. 5 for Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion, No. 7 for Howie Morenz, No. 9 for Maurice (Rocket) Richard, No. 10 for Guy Lafleur, No. 12 for Dickie Moore and Yvan Cournoyer and No. 16 for Henri Richard.

The Canadiens plan to retire more numbers annually leading up to the club's 100th anniversary in 2009.

"It's very emotional in all kinds of ways," said Dryden, who watched the Canadiens' practice at the Bell Centre.

Dryden joined the Canadiens late in the 1970-71 season and led them to a Stanley Cup -- then won the Calder Trophy as the NHL rookie of the year the following season.

The law school graduate played eight seasons for Montreal, winning the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender twice outright and sharing it three times with Michel Larocque. The Toronto native was a first-team all-star five times.

Long, long overdue. Congrats Ken!!

For those of you unable to be in Montreal or get the TV feed, the audio stream has started through nhl.com and the Montreal feed will be broadcasting the ceremony live as well as have stories about Dryden's first contract and his getting thrown in to 70-71 playoffs as an untested rookie.

Aloha!

DirecTV Channel 764 is carrying the ceremony live, right now (if you subscribe to Center Ice) Awesome stuff!!!

redice
DirecTV Channel 764 is carrying the ceremony live, right now (if you subscribe to Center Ice) Awesome stuff!!!

I do subscribe, but as JTW knows, it isn't portable off the continental US.

On the audio stream interview, Dryden did mention how he wasn't very nervous about playing in the Boston Garden during the playoffs because he had played there in college in front of a packed house.

It's on Canadian CBC (local channel CBMT for Vermont) right now, too. Thanks for the heads up everyone. I wouldn't have known to look.

His brother just spoke. Growing up in Toronto obviously didn't require good French speaking back in those days judging by his first few words before he switched to English.

Interesting aside, the Montreal announcers just mentioned that the Ottawa Senators have elected to stay in the locker room during the retirement ceremony.

I did watch the Stevie Yzerman jersey retirement ceremony a few weeks ago and the Anaheim Ducks stayed on the ice to watch it. Maybe it is a generation thing; Stevie Y was a contemporary of the Duck players, whereas I do not know how many of the current Senators were even born when Dryden tended goal for the Habs.

I didn't know that his brother was a goalie for Buffalo. He is talking about each of them facing eachother as goalies playing ballhockey in the driveway as kids before finally having on chance to play against eachother in the NHL.

Ken's French is not perfect, but much better than his brother's. His speaking is very polished as expected from his career after hockey.

Awesome- In French he mentioned famous Canadiens he could picture from his childhood, and then said if anyone had a vision of him, it was of him standing, leaning on his stick, doing nothing.

He said that was the 70's. That and many, many Stanley Cups, to the great delight of the fans.

He credits his brother with his choice to become a goalie since his brother was a goalie and was older than him.

His worst moment was losing 7-3 to Tretiak, but than said it was quite a bit different 27 years later.

cth95
His worst moment was losing 7-3 to Tretiak, but than said it was quite a bit different 27 years later.

I think he said 27 days later, when Team Canada won the final game in Russia (Moscow?).

Al DeFlorio

cth95
His worst moment was losing 7-3 to Tretiak, but than said it was quite a bit different 27 years later.

I think he said 27 days later, when Team Canada won the final game in Russia (Moscow?).

That's what I meant. Trying to type and listen at the same time.

Ken is one big guy. He is as tall in his shoes as the players who handed him the banner are in their skates.

All of the Canadien players are standing with Dryden 29 jerseys as the banner is raised.

cth95
I didn't know that his brother was a goalie for Buffalo. He is talking about each of them facing eachother as goalies playing ballhockey in the driveway as kids before finally having on chance to play against eachother in the NHL.

His book, The Game, describes their childhood with a rink in the back yard or driveway -- trapezoidal, as I recall, with one end much narrower than the other. His older brother's friends came over every day to practice on the rink, but had to live with the house rules: Kenny gets to play. So he was defending against older kids from day one.

Tretiak wearing a CCCP jersey.

1970-1979.
Imagine the numbers he might have had if he played for a few more years.

cth95
Ken is one big guy. He is as tall in his shoes as the players who handed him the banner are in their skates.

Goaltenders his size are fairly common today (see the big guy playing for Maine), but for his time he was a giant. Wearing the much smaller goalie pads of his era, he looked all arms and legs. His five-hole was about the size of Brian Cropper in pads.

All of the current Canadiens wearing jerseys bearing the name "Dryden" & "29" One quick picture of Ken from his Cornell days. Damn, I wish I had known to record this one.

The pads look almost ridiculous on Dryden in the Cornell pictures I have seen of him. They barely cover his knees. I imagine he used to have a lot of bruises.

The sad ending: After the ceremony, the jackasses broadcasting the game not knowing that their microphones were turned on for a very long time. And, at times their cameras were on & pointed at clueless announcers (saying nothing, of course). If the NHL wants to be a major league sport, they really need to do better than this. At least none of the idle chatter included nothing embarassing.

That was classless of the Senators not to be out on the ice for the ceremony. And when the Ottawa broadcast (watching on center ice) showed them in the locker room, they just looked bored. I guess they have no appreciation of history.

I didn't hear or see that on the CBC broadcast. CBC actually cut out of regular programming specifically to show this ceremony and then went back to the middle of a show when it was over. They weren't even showing a game.

Ronald '09
That was classless of the Senators not to be out on the ice for the ceremony. And when the Ottawa broadcast (watching on center ice) showed them in the locker room, they just looked bored. I guess they have no appreciation of history.

that's a little presumptious. How do you know what the senators where thinking? Perhaps they thought that this ceremony belonged to Dryden, the Canadians and Montreal and they didn't want to be a distraction.

evilnaturedrobot

Ronald '09
That was classless of the Senators not to be out on the ice for the ceremony. And when the Ottawa broadcast (watching on center ice) showed them in the locker room, they just looked bored. I guess they have no appreciation of history.

that's a little presumptious. How do you know what the senators where thinking? Perhaps they thought that this ceremony belonged to Dryden, the Canadians and Montreal and they didn't want to be a distraction.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of the Sens staying in the locker room. Given that none of the current Senators played with Dryden (and probably very few of them were alive when Ken played), I can understand them staying in the locker room. The ceremony was very long it would have been "uncomfortable" sitting on the bench/ice in full gear. I don't think it is necessarily "not appreciating hockey history" but a combination of letting Dryden have the spot light, not having a direct link to Dryden's playing days, and allowing the team (the Sens) to best prepare for the game given the circumstances.

Steve Y was extremely appreciative of the Anaheim Ducks being out on the ice for his ceremony, knowing how difficult it would be for them to go out and play after the long ceremony. But as I mentioned above, most of the Duck players have played against (and with) Yzerman during the course of his career, so I think when honoring a peer, you might be willing to "sacrifice" some of your pre-game preparations.

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