May 21, 1979: The Montreal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4-1 at the Montreal Forum, and win the Stanley Cup Finals by the same margin. It is the 4th straight Cup for Les Habitantes, and their 22nd overall, tying them with the New York Yankees for the most World Championships of any team in North America.
The Rangers had one of their best teams ever, but the Habs may have been the best team ever. They had 10 future Hall-of-Famers: Guy Lafleur, Yvan Cournoyer, Jacques Lemaire, Steve Shutt, Bob Gainey, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Rod Langway and Ken Dryden; not to mention Doug Risebrough, Doug Jarvis, Pierre Larouche and Rejean Houle.
Actually, Cournoyer, who had been the Captain of the Habs' last 3 Cup winners, had a bad back, and hadn't played since November 18, 1978. He retired after this game. So did Lemaire. So did Dryden. This brought their dynasty to an end: Although the Habs had won 4 straight Cups, and 10 of the last 15, they have won only 2 since.
Langway, Risebrough and Jarvis went on to play for other teams, and build fine careers, but none ever won another Cup.
A graduate of Cornell University, an Ivy League school that he helped lead to the 1967 NCAA Championship, Dryden was considered such a good prospect by the Canadiens that they were willing to trade away 2 goalies who went on to Hall of Fame careers of their own: Tony Esposito with the Chicago Black Hawks, and Rogatien "Rogie" Vachon with the Los Angeles Kings.
It paid off: Dryden replaced an injured Vachon late in the 1970-71 regular season, and he helped them win the Stanley Cup, and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That season, he played 6 NHL games in the regular season, and 20 in the Playoffs. The following season, he won the Frank Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Rookie of the Year -- the only athlete in North America's "Big Four" sports to win the postseason MVP first, and the Rookie of the Year second.
He and Esposito were the 2 goalies selected for Team Canada in the "Summit Series" with the Soviet Union in 1972. Dryden played in Games 1, 4, 6 and 8; Esposito in Games 2, 3, 5 and 7.
The Canadiens did not win the Cup in 1972, but they did in 1973. Dryden missed the 1973-74 NHL season, so he could earn his law degree from McGill University in Montreal. The Canadiens did not win. He came back for 1974-75. They did not win. But they did for 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-79.
He then retired, having played 7 full seasons, and playing in the All-Star Game in 5 of them, and winning the Vezina Trophy as the League's top goalie in 5 of them. His Number 1 was retired by Cornell, and his Number 29 was retired by the Canadiens. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, named Number 26 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players in 1998 (5th among goalies, behind Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Glenn Hall and Patrick Roy), and named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017.
Having abandoned his famed red, white and blue mask, and his familiar pose of resting his arms on top of his stick, at the age of 31, he turned to more intellectual pursuits, including writing several books. The Game, written about his final season, has been called one of the best books ever written about hockey. In 2019, he published Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other, a biography of his former coach, Scotty Bowman. No coach has led more Cup wins, 9, the 1st 5 with Dryden.
He broadcast hockey for ABC for the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics, including the "Miracle On Ice" game in Lake Placid, New York in 1980. Having grown up in Hamilton, Ontario, his childhood team was the Canadiens' arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. From 1997 to 2004, he served as President of the Leafs organization, and they got to within 1 game of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999. But they got no closer.
Honored at a 50th Anniversary celebration
of the 1971 Stanley Cup
After leaving the Leafs, he went into politics. He was elected as a member of the Liberal Party to the House of Commons for York Centre, a Toronto district, in 2004, and Prime Minister Paul Martin named him Minister of Social Development. He lost that post when the Conservative Party won the 2006 election, although Dryden was re-elected to his seat. He won again in 2008, but lost in 2011, and has not run for office again. In 2012, he was named an officer of the Order of Canada, the country's equivalent to a knighthood.
*
May 21, 1979 was a Monday. The NBA Finals were between Games 1 and 2. The Seattle SuperSonics went on to reverse the result of the previous year's Finals, beating the Washington Bullets in 5 games. Football was out of season. And these 8 Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Jack Billingham outpitched Ron Guidry. Lance Parrish hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Willie Stargell hit a home run, which was not surprising. Omar Moreno and Ed Ott also hit home runs for the Pirates, which was surprising.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Carlton outpitched John Denny, who would later win a Cy Young Award with the Phillies. Mike Schmidt hit a home run. Pete Rose went 3-for-4.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 7-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-1 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 12-7 at Royals Stadium (later Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 7-6 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* And the San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and San Diego Stadium).
No comments:
Post a Comment