Professor Dryden has his eye on Price
Former Habs goalie concedes he is hoping for a Canada-Russia gold-medal matchup
To most Canadians, Ken Dryden’s name is associated with hockey and the political scene.
To his students in a course called Making the Future at McGill University and the University of Calgary, the Hockey Hall of Famer and former Liberal member of Parliament is a thoughtprovoking and engaging professor.
These days, the Canadiens legend’s main focus is on moulding young minds at the university level, noting that these are the individuals who will dictate Canada’s future.
“This is the (third) year that I’m teaching this course at McGill,” said Dryden, who has a law degree from McGill. “It’s called Making the Future. And I went to McGill with the idea of it and it was kind of an experimental course because the approach of it is not to focus on learning what was, but (what) is, and to apply that to what a future might be. And (my) students are going to be working for the next 40-plus years and going to be living for the next 60-plus years. The question is what are (they) going to be doing, and how are (they) going to be doing it?”
Each three-hour course focuses on topics ranging from the workplace, family and religion to health care, diversity and politics. This school year, Dryden made the deci- sion to teach the course in conjunction with the University of Calgary. When Dryden is at McGill, Calgary students follow on a video screen with a teaching assistant, and it’s vice-versa when he’s in Calgary.
Dryden admits that technical refinements still need to be made.
“They call them ‘ smart classrooms,’ but they’re not that smart, yet,” he said. “And so there are lots of limitations and, like anything with limitations, you have to understand what can be overcome right away, what can’t, and then you work with what you’ve got.”
Despite having a tightly packed schedule, Professor Dryden still keeps tabs on the Canadiens and hockey in general.
From his point of view, the Canadiens’ Carey Price is an exceptional goaltender with an elite level of athletic ability. But Dryden, a goaltender who won six Stanley Cups during his eight seasons with the Canadiens, does not know whether Price can backstop this year’s team on an extended playoff run.
“It’s not easy to be the goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens,” said Dryden, who retired after winning the Stanley Cup in 1979. “It’s especially not easy when you are the real source of hope when the team is good, but not great, and everybody’s hopes are for greatness. I think that what Carey Price can do is what’s in him to do. You only find out over time, and with a test, as to how much he can carry a team beyond what it seems capable of.”
With the Sochi Winter Olympics in full swing — and Price in goal for Team Canada’s first game Thursday against Norway — Dryden is as patriotic as ever. The 66-year-old expressed jollity upon learning of Team Canada’s decision to have Martin St. Louis replace the injured Steven Stamkos on the roster. Nevertheless, Dryden is emphatic in his belief that one player cannot influence the outcome of the tournament.
“When the final selections were made, it was obviously a hard choice,” Dryden said. “And what you knew at that time was that the choice of players that they made wasn’t going to make the difference of gold or something else. Their roster is strong enough to win gold. It’s also a roster where it can be beaten. And so you can decide on one player or another, but they are not going to be the difference in the whole thing. Martin St. Louis has been a really terrific player for Tampa Bay and it was really interesting to watch him after — in those few games after he wasn’t selected — and how he kind of went on a tear. Not very many would be able to do that. (Most players) would be so brokenhearted that it would be very difficult to go out and find what’s in you to do as well as he did. And so good for him! And I imagine that whatever the best is in Martin St. Louis, we will see it in Sochi.”
Dryden conceded he is hoping for a Canada-Russia gold-medal matchup, a contest he would be sure to enjoy from his home in Toronto on Feb. 23.
“I hope it would be Canada (vs.) Russia,” he said.
“That’s the magical match for the final. It would take Canada’s best to get there, and it will take a ‘best’ that the Russians haven’t shown for some years. And so if they both get there, they will both have earned getting there, and it will be some final game.”