The Series, Ken Dryden
The Series, Ken Dryden
List: $26.00 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $13.00

The Series
What I Remember, What It Felt Like, What It Feels Like Now

Author: Ken Dryden

Narrator: Ken Dryden

Unabridged: 2 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/23/2022


Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A new book by Hall of Fame goalie and bestselling author Ken Dryden celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series

 SEPTEMBER 2, 1972, MONTREAL FORUM, GAME ONE: 

 The best against the best for the first time. Canada, the country that had created the game; the Soviet Union, having taken it up only twenty-six years earlier. On the line: more than the players, more than the fans, more than Canadians and Russians knew.
    So began an entirely improbable, near-month-long series of games that became more and more riveting, until, for the eighth, and final, and deciding game—on a weekday, during work and school hours all across the country—the nation stopped. Of Canada’s 22 million people, 16 million watched. Three thousand more were there, in Moscow, behind the Iron Curtain, singing—Da da, Ka-na-da, nyet, nyet, So-vi-yet!
     It is a story long told, often told. But never like this.
    Ken Dryden, a goalie in the series, a lifetime observer, later a writer, tells the story in “you are there” style, as if he is living it for the first time. As if you, the reader, are too.
    The series, as it turned out, is the most important moment in hockey history, changing the game, on the ice and off, everywhere in the world. As it turned out, it is one of the most significant events in all of Canada’s history.
    Through Ken Dryden’s words, we understand why.

About The Author

KEN DRYDEN was a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s, during which time the team won six Stanley Cups. He also played for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. He was a former federal member of parliament and cabinet minister, and was the author of multiple books, including The Game, Home Game (with Roy MacGregor), Game Change, and The Class.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alex on September 11, 2022

I should have seen this coming. When Ken Dryden's first-hand look at the 1972 Team Canada matchup against Russia, The Series, was announced, there were lofty expectations that this was going to be a tell-all exposé from the "missing link" on the team, which was going to go in-depth into the understan......more

Goodreads review by David Budlin on September 06, 2022

Much less detail than "The Game." A good review of each game in the series. But very little insight in what went on in the locker room of Team Canada and the decision making process of the coaching staff. Dryden is at his best at the end of the book when he reflects on the larger meaning of the seri......more

Goodreads review by Dennis on February 20, 2023

Mr. Dryden has again given a gripping and very personal overview of one of my strongest memories of our Game. Like most Canadian children in front of a TV at boarding school 1972. I was 7. This is a great way to relive a defining moment in Canadian history. A moment that united us all behind our tea......more

Goodreads review by Saraline on March 25, 2023

The 1972 Summit Series between the Canadian and Soviet hockey teams was a pretty big deal at the time; my dad remembers watching it in class at school. Last year was the 50th anniversary, so, like, a million books on the topic were published. This particular book was written by Ken Dryden, one of th......more

Goodreads review by Richard on September 28, 2022

Last quarter of the book is redeemingly insightful. The other reads like the back of a hockey card. Unique photos of the series throughout, including a boxscore of game 5 filled out in Russian and a shot of Russian players walking down St.Catherine’s Street in Montreal. Overall, a guarded look at th......more


Quotes

"[Ken Dryden is] [h]ockey's brainiest practitioner[...]The story has grace and pride in the telling, and soul as well."Canada's History

“Over 192 beautiful pages, the book combines one player's memories of the Summit Series with photos, letters and other mementoes to give the reader a deeply personal glimpse at eight games that united a nation.”—CBC

“Dryden’s erudite and heartfelt retelling of the events of that summer is a must-read for students of the game, and the beautifully packaged book with its myriad color photos is the perfect gift for hockey fans everywhere.”—The Hockey Writers

 “A marvelous tribute to one of the greatest sports events of the 20th century and – to many historians and fans alike [...] Like Dryden himself in that 6-5 Game Eight finale in Moscow, the book comes out a winner.”—International Ice Hockey Federation

“… an interesting one-sitting read with great photographs”The Peterborough Examiner

The Series is not so much a chronicle of the games as an assembly line of word pictures spilling from the memory of what it felt like to a thoughtful, observant, and articulate man who not only was there, but out there on the ice both in Canada and Moscow.”—Winnipeg Free Press