\u201cThat hit me like a sledgehammer the other day. I didn\u2019t know that Ken was sick or how long he\u2019d been sick, but man, that was a bolt out of the blue,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cI share so many special memories with him, obviously, and being a part of what took place in Lake Placid in 1980, of course. I\u2019ll always, always have a special bond with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up in the Toronto suburbs, Dryden was drafted 14th, ironically by the Bruins, in 1964, though Boston quickly traded the 16-year-old\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
He turned pro late in the 1971 season and impressed the Canadiens brass so much, he earned the starting job over veteran \u2014 and fellow Pro Hockey Hall of Famer \u2014 Rogie Vachon.<\/p>\n
Dryden was tremendous in leading Montreal to the Cup, beating the defending champion Bruins<\/a> with stars Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in the first round. <\/p>\n Esposito would later go on to call the 6-foot-4-inch Dryden \u2014 tall for a goalie in that era \u2014 \u201cthat thieving giraffe.\u201d<\/p>\n Dryden, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP in 1971, then helped lead the Habs to five more Stanley Cups (1973, \u201876-79).<\/p>\n It was that fateful \u201971 season where Michaels has one of his first memories of Dryden.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, irony of ironies. In 1971, I am the announcer for the Cincinnati Reds<\/a>. I had just gotten the job. I\u2019m 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,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cSo, 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\u2019s playing for us at the time, obviously. And Johnny not only goes to the game, but Johnny somehow winds up in the Canadiens\u2019 locker room and takes a picture with Ken Dryden after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Dryden\u2019s final appearance against the Bruins came in the infamous \u201ctoo many men on the ice\u201d game<\/a> during the 1979 Stanley Cup semifinals.<\/p>\n Dryden rose to the occasion in the biggest of moments. He brought his \u2018A\u2019 game \u2014 he may not have had a \u2018B\u2019 version \u2014 and commanded that you bring yours. No one knew that better than Gerry Cheevers, so often his counterpart in the Boston net<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cOne thing with Kenny is you couldn\u2019t be bad and hope to beat him or their team,\u201d Cheevers said before teeing off at the Bruins annual golf tournament. \u201cAnd to me, he was the cherry on top of a great, great ice cream sundae.\u201d<\/p>\n Those \u201970s 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 \u2014 particularly in their battles with the Bruins.<\/p>\n \u201cNot too many people say this, but they needed Kenny Dryden,\u201d Cheevers said. \u201cI didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Following that final Cup and a fourth straight Vezina Trophy in \u201979, Dryden decided he was done with hockey. He set his keen eye on broadcasting.<\/p>\n \u201cThat 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 \u201970s with gigantic success,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cBut 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, \u2018We 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.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Dryden wore many hats following his playing days: broadcaster, author, politician, front office executive among them. He was also a master multitasker.<\/p>\n Michaels witnessed that firsthand in Lake Placid.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, 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,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cAfter 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.\u201d <\/p>\n Michaels\u2019s call of \u201cDo you believe in miracles?<\/a> Yes!,\u201d the \u201cseminal moment of my career . . . but for Ken it was just another step along the way of doing 18 million things.\u201d<\/p>\n The Michaels-Dryden broadcasting team reunited for two more Olympics \u2014 1984 in Sarajevo and \u203288 in Calgary.<\/p>\n Dryden authored a number of books, including \u201cThe Game,\u201d which delved into those legendary Canadiens teams of the 1970s. It is considered by many the best hockey book ever written.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, \u2018The Game\u2019 is as great a sports book as I\u2019ve ever read. It\u2019s phenomenal,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cEvery word was his own \u2014 there\u2019s no ghostwriting. He\u2019s a brilliant guy, a brilliant guy. There\u2019s no two ways about it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Parliament. He was named Canada\u2019s Minister of Social Development and was reelected in 2006.<\/p>\n Michaels said his last conversation with Dryden came a few months back, when Dryden told some stories for an upcoming documentary on Michaels\u2019s storied career.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my career, probably I\u2019ve done 25, 30 different sports. Crazy stuff from \u2018Wide World of Sports<\/a>\u2019 like motorcycles on ice, and I probably worked with a hundred different analysts. Kenny was very unique in so many ways,\u201d said Michaels. \u201cI\u2019ve 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 \u201980s. And they were very similar people. Thoughtful, elegant.\u201d<\/p>\n Healthy outlooks<\/p>\n Lindholms optimistic as Bruins gather <\/p>\n The Lindholms were all smiles.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Though he indicated he\u2019d like to put last season \u201cin the trash,\u201d<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good way to finish for me,\u201d said Elias, who spent the offseason in his native Sweden after playing in the World Championships. \u201cI 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\u2019m coming in here with some pretty good confidence, so hopefully we can do something good this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Hampus Lindholm was playing great hockey<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n He also missed a chance to represent Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off<\/a>. The defenseman is hoping to suit up for Tre Kronor at the Olympics<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course there\u2019s a little extra fuel, not that you need that to play in the NHL, that\u2019s fuel enough,\u201d said Hampus. \u201cBut of course there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Wild times<\/p>\n Guerin deals with negativity<\/p>\n Wild general manager Bill Guerin went into spin control after a report from the Daily Faceoff\u2019s Frank Seravalli indicating star left wing Kirill Kaprizov turned down an eight-year contract<\/a> worth $128 million.<\/p>\n 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\u2019 Leon Draisaitl) and most money. (Alex Ovechkin signed a 13-year, $124 million in 2008.)<\/p>\n Guerin, the former Bruin and Boston College standout<\/a>, addressed the report on the \u201c10,000 Takes\u201d show.<\/p>\n \u201cMy role as general manager is to protect our players,\u201d he said. \u201cI know two things. That info didn\u2019t come from us, and it didn\u2019t come from Kirill\u2019s agent [Paul Theofanous]. I don\u2019t know where it came from. Kirill\u2019s agent and I have a very good relationship. We\u2019re working through things. We\u2019re not going to let things like this get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n If Kaprizov does sign before hitting free agency, it could start a domino effect with other high-profile pending UFAs (Edmonton\u2019s Connor McDavid and the Golden Knights\u2019 Jack Eichel, specifically) looking to cash in.<\/p>\n Loose pucks<\/p>\n Quiz time: Ken Dryden\u2019s 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. \u201cI know it\u2019s heresy,\u201d said Michaels. \u201cAnd 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\u2019d ever seen. And I think most people would agree with that.\u201d With a laugh, Michaels added that if McDavid goes to free agency, \u201cI hope your Bruins don\u2019t get him and the Kings do.\u201d … The Bruins open training camp Wednesday. Don\u2019t blink: They\u2019ll play their first exhibition game Sunday<\/a> 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. \u201cI\u2019m worried about playing for Pittsburgh,\u201d Crosby said at the NHL\/NHLPA media tour. \u201cI haven\u2019t seriously considered anything else.\u201d But he added a bit of intrigue with \u201cif it ever came to that point, I would discuss it. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019m there.\u201d 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\u2019t be leaving the Windy City any time soon. \u201cWe\u2019re both comfortable with where we\u2019re at. They know I want to be there; I know they want me,\u201d he said at the media tour. \u201cSo, it\u2019s really not on my mind that much, and I just think when it happens, it\u2019ll happen.\u201d … Former Bruin Mark Mowers and John \u201cCappy\u201d Capobianco were back at it last week, hosting a second annual mini golf tournament<\/a> at Richardson\u2019s in Middleton \u2014 get the Moose Tracks, you won\u2019t regret it \u2014 to raise money for the Warrior For Life Fund. Former Bruins Terry O\u2019Reilly, Rick Middleton, and Reggie Lemelin were among the competitors. The WFLF \u201cfocus 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.\u201d For more information, head to warriorforlifefund.org<\/a> … 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 \u201cChamp\u201d 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), \u201cChamp\u201d is every writer\u2019s best friend. If you\u2019ve 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 \u201cChamp\u201d was the architect behind it. Hit \u2018em straight, partner … Quiz answer: Joe Nieuwendyk (class of 1986) had his No. 25 sweater retired in a ceremony with Dryden in 2010.<\/p>\n Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @globejimmcbride<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"These](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/LVGQG5WQK4I6TKF27QRM3GWZJY.jpg\")
These days, Al Michaels calls the NFL’s Thursday night games on Prime.Richard Shotwell\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n![\"Hampus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TKHR5LAS6IQE47UUHXSOHB4QHU.jpg\")
Hampus Lindholm had his season cut short after a knee injury.
\n Matthew J Lee\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n![\"Kirill](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/5DC2SFBXIAC7XLU7PH6S7TBWY4.jpg\")
Kirill Kaprizov, 28, has put up 386 points in 319 career games for the Wild.David Becker\/Associated Press<\/p>\n