“If you watched Ken play, you knew he understood very well what his defense would do in certain situations, so he’d be in the right place at the right time, when the opponent shot,” Parent said. “My memories of him shouldn’t be great, playing for the other team, but they are. Ken’s poise was a great attribute.”
And then, with a laugh: “But he once told me that I was a good goalie, so what did he know?”
No one will mourn the loss of Dryden more than Bowman, who had to be coaxed into working with his former goalie on a 2019 biography of the NHL’s most successful coach.
“Ken was a very cerebral person,” Bowman said. “He approached me about a book project, but I wasn’t interested. I told him I was pretty busy and that I liked my winters in Florida.
“But he came back with a timetable, said he wasn’t in a rush, saying he could call me three times a week and do a couple hours on the phone. Everything was so organized. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 o’clock he’d call me or I’d call him and we’d talk sometimes for almost three hours, about subjects that he came up with. He came down to Florida and to my Buffalo home a few times, transcribing our talks, gathering photos and books from me, for nearly three years before the project was finally finished.
“I’ll always remember that about Ken, how thoroughly he prepared, how organized he was, how simple he made things for me. That’s the way he was in hockey, and that’s how he was in life.”
Top photo: Ken Dryden strikes his familiar pose on the ice at St. Louis Arena during a 1975 game
