''The Game'' is a book written by former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

Ken Dryden Kenneth Wayne Dryden (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender, politician, lawyer, businessman, and author. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was ...

. Published in 1983, the book is a

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

account of the 1978-79 Montreal Canadiens, detailing the life of a professional hockey player. The book describes the pressures of being a goaltender in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

, and gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at a team that would eventually win the 1979 Stanley Cup. Dryden writes about the life of an athlete, coping with the demands of a demanding sport and reconciling these pressures with life outside the arena.

Reception

Ken Dryden's book ''The Game'' received praise from critics upon its publication.

Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are ''The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (novel), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and ''Barney's Version (novel), Barney's Versi ...

wrote "Dryden has written a very special book, possibly the best hockey book I have ever read. His affectionate yet realistic portrait of the players is unrivalled in hockey writing."http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=2b790b86-4de1-4b13-9302-211ce264880f Wrote noted sports columnist Scott Young: "A hockey book so rare that there is actually nothing to compare it to." ''The Game'' was nominated for a

Governor General's Literary Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

for Non-fiction in 1983 Since its publication its stature has continued to grow.

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

named it in 2002 as the ninth best sports book of all time: "Hall of Fame goalie Dryden was always different. A Cornell grad, he led Montreal to six Stanley Cups, then at 26 sat out a year to prepare for the bar exam. His book is different too: a well-crafted account of his career combined with a meditation on hockey's special place in Canadian culture." The book review site The Pequod rated the book a 10.0 (out of 10.0) and said, “Dryden's book is so beautifully written, with such a wise and thoughtful voice, that it often rises to level of great literature.” Ian McGillis in the Montreal Gazette wrote "It's a book that made a huge splash on first publication in 1983 and has weathered the subsequent decades remarkably well, staying in print and picking up new readers far past the point where a book tied to a specific hockey season – 1978–79 – might be expected to. Its stature owes something to how clearly it stands out among sports books, but to call it the best hockey book ever, as it certainly is, still sounds faintly condescending. It’s a Canadian classic, period."

References

1983 non-fiction books Ice hockey books Canadian non-fiction books History of the Montreal Canadiens 1978–79 NHL season {{Sport-book-stub