Face-off at the summit

This look at the 1972 "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union (oh, okay, we called them "the Russians") has an immediacy that still comes across nearly thirty years later. I was too young to really follow the series at the time (my clearest memory is of Phil Esposito wiping out on a rose petal during the pre-game ceremony in Moscow) but I have seen Paul Henderson's goal so many times over the years that the series itself seems as far away from me as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. So it was a surprise that this book kept me up well into the night, sweating it out with Team Canada, even though I was pretty sure I knew how it would all turn out!Dryden, a wonderful author, did not actually write this story -- he kept a diary, largely on tape, which was later edited and transcribed by a Sports Illustrated editor. As a result the feel of being inside the player's head is preserved. Dryden the author is typically scholarly and reflective. Dryden the young player is revealed as introspective, self-doubting, and a surprisingly funny guy. He refers to a particularly dangerous Russian player largely as "that man" and you can just hear his frustration. After the debacle that was Game One (I suppose it was only a debacle if you happen to be Canadian) Dryden's diary entry is long, soul-searching, and deeply tortured. If Canadian fans had realized at the time how seriously the "pampered NHL stars" were taking the tournament, surely they would not have been so quick to boo. Ken Dryden has always been aware that hockey is only a game, and yet more than a game. Even at this early stage of his writing career he was examining how hockey is entwined with the self image of Canada and Canadians. Although he remarks after Game Eight that he is "not an especially flag-waving, patriotic kind of guy," he joined in singing "Oh Canada" with the rest of the team and their families and was clearly aware that the outcome of the series was more than a simple won-loss-tied total. He is aware as the story is being written that the Russians do a lot of things in sport far better, and with more organization than do Canadians, but his self-doubt does not turn into self-denigration (although there are clearly times when he doesn't think he's the goalie he should be). In fact, after reading this series diary, it should have surprised nobody that the thoughtful goalie became a thoughtful author. If hockey truly provides a window on our national soul, it deserves to have a real chronicler. How lucky we are that Ken Dryden was willing to take up the task. He was clearly suited for it from the very beginning.

This book is an excellent representation of neumerous things about the famous 1972 "Summit Series" between Canada and Russia: one, it reports what happened; two, it shows how one good or bad game can have such an effect on a person (or people) when the pride of a Country is on the line; and three, it gives an up-close look at the political maneuvering that went behind the sceens of this event, and it is told by what is probably the smartest man to ever play hockey. All real fans of the sport - and especially Canadiens - should read this.

A must read for any true hockey fan. The '72 Summit Series changed the face of hockey, and Dryden's daily involvement brings you close to the action on and off the ice.