FACE-OFF AT THE SUMMIT

by Ken & Mark Mulvoy Dryden ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 1973

Swallow hard and say it. The best hockey book since Paradise Lost (we usually eschew such literary references here at dear KR) when God faced-off against the Devil and nearly lost. It was almost that traumatic, that imperative, when Team Canada (or was it Team NHL? -- Bobby Hull disqualified for skittering to the WHA? Heresy) met the Russians for more than the Stanley Cup -- for the Best In The World -- last year when national prestige was on the blue line. Bet your ass, countrymen expected an 8-0 sweep. But Dryden, the teller of this tale of pluck and puck, lost the first game. He also lost the fourth game (God Save the Queen, Canada, and Thank the Merciful Lord for T. Esposito). Disgrace was around the nets, dosing in like that nameless Hero of the Soviet who practiced eleven months out of the year (Team Canada came on like a soft touch; Gosh, Dryden was getting his law degree at McGill and Brad Park was having a baby and besides how can you compete with thousands of Russians chanting Shaibu, Shaibu, Shaibu -- a very unsubtle situation, believe me), but somehow, probably the Lord's influence, Canada won! Took the whole thing 4-3-1, with Ken in the goalie's den in the decisive sixth and eighth games, as luck would have it, or Him. Kenny Dryden is an intelligent hockeyman -- he credits the Soviet players for their diligence, he knocks Clarence Campbell for his pop-offishness, he lambasts the decision to exclude Hull as ""ridiculous"" -- and this ""honest diary"" of the Canada-Soviet Union series is the hat trick he'll never pull off again, not only because he's the man with the face mask but because there will never, never, never, be another summit like this one. For all ages, all fans.

Pub Date: March 21, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION