Former Habs goalie Dryden explains what Putin 'doesn't understand about hockey'

Former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden recently wrote an article about Vladimir Putin and what he doesn't understand about hockey. Dryden explains that Russians and Canadians love hockey for many of the same reasons. The winter, the cold, the history, the toughness. All of that comes into consideration, but there are some things that Dryden believes that the hockey player Putin does not understand.

One of the things is that when Putin is playing against real players, and they let him skate right past them, it's not realistic at all. Along with this, the goalies will slide to a side of the net leaving the other side unguarded, allowing for an easy goal. This doesn't happen in real hockey and a normal player would never "ask it, expect it, or allow it."

This brings Dryden to his second point about Putin where he explains that the tough players give out hard, aggressive hits, but the tougher players take those hits in order to keep going to win in the end.
Dryden then bashes Putin by explaining certain hits or events don't make you tough.

"Just like in Leningrad. Obliterating the Ukrainian city of Mariupol doesn't make you tough."

Dryden then had one more point about what Putin doesn't understand, and that was the way that hatred can be turned into respect and appreciation where shared humanity can be revealed.

The backstory behind this point goes back to the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and Russia. Canada ended up winning the series in game eight when Canada's Paul Henderson scored with 34 seconds left. At the time, Putin was a 19-year-old law student that likely watched or listened to the game. Even though it happened to be one of the most passionate and hard fought series in the history of both countries, there was a sense of respect and appreciation for both sides.

Dryden ends the story with some advice it seemed to Putin.

"Taking all this in, Putin might have finally gained a sense of what it's like to be a real player. He might have come to understand that no matter how geopolitics divides us, humanity lies beneath."

washingtonpost.com

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