Mark Madden: Few held the torch higher than Ken Dryden for hockey's most legendary franchise

I’ve been a Pittsburgh Penguins supporter since the franchise’s first season, 1967-68. I went to my first game when I was 7.

The Penguins were bad for a long time. Won four playoff rounds total before 1991. (Then won four playoff rounds that year.)

I needed a mistress team. Somebody else to root for besides (but never against) the Penguins.

Mine was the Montreal Canadiens. Still is.

Red uniforms. Great logo. Firewagon hockey with French flair. Tradition. Winners.

During the ’70s, Ken Dryden was at the heart of all that.

Dryden was one of the top five goaltenders ever. He played eight seasons. Won six Stanley Cups, playoff MVP, rookie of the year, five Vezina Trophies as best goalie. The Canadiens retired his No. 29. He’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Dryden was a different kind of hockey player.

He took a year off mid-career to finish law school. He retired at 31 after winning a fourth straight Stanley Cup to become a lawyer, politician, author, TV analyst and hockey executive. Few athletes had as many layers as Dryden.

Dryden’s resume was incredible beyond his Cups, awards and amazing stats. (His lifetime goals-against average of 2.24 ranks ninth in NHL history.)

• He won the NCAA Division I hockey championship at Cornell in 1967.

• He was NHL playoff MVP in 1971, then got top rookie the following season. (Only time it’s been done in that order.)

• He beat the U.S.S.R. in the decisive Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series, the first time Canadian pros played Soviet “amateurs.”

• He did TV commentary for the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” alongside Al Michaels.

• He wrote “The Game,” an account of his final pro season. It’s widely considered the best hockey book ever. Detailed and nuanced. It captured the personality of those legendary Canadiens perfectly and the pressure of being a goaltender.

So much of Dryden’s career is a vivid memory to me.

I saw Dryden’s first NHL game. (More later.)

His spectacular play in a cataclysmic upset of defending champion Boston in the ’71 playoffs, the season before his official rookie year.

His stunning pad save on Chicago’s Jim Pappin to preserve a 3-2 lead in Game 7 of the ’71 Stanley Cup Final.

Dryden was 6-foot-4. Boston star Phil Esposito famously called him a “thieving giraffe.” It was like trying to score on an incredibly skilled octopus, one who saw the play develop before it happened. Dryden had a monster hockey IQ.

Dryden had that iconic pose where he leaned on the butt-end of his stick, holding it near his chin during breaks in play. He looked 10 feet tall.

Dryden was cool in a quiet, dignified, scholarly way. A perfect hero for a smart kid.

I felt connected to Dryden because I saw his first NHL game: March 14, 1971, at Civic (later Mellon) Arena. I was 10.

Montreal beat the Penguins, 5-1.

That matchup often went thusly in the ’70s. But the Penguins did force Dryden to make 35 saves.

Years later, I hosted intermissions during Penguins radio broadcasts on WDVE-FM. Dryden was president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I asked Dryden to be interviewed. (I’m not sure of the date. Dryden was Leafs president from 1997-2003.)

Dryden said, “I don’t do interviews during games.”

I cut him off, pointed at the ice and said, “Right down there.”

Dryden said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Your first NHL game. March of ’71. I saw it. I was 10. Right down there.”

Dryden smiled, chuckled resignedly and said, “When do you need me?”

Dryden did the interview. He was charming, insightful and witty.

Mostly, he was Ken Dryden.

Talking to me.

With that 10-year-old kid sitting right next to me.

Dryden passed away Friday. He was 78.

The Canadiens’ locker room has a motto posted: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high.”

In the storied history of hockey’s most legendary franchise, few (if anybody) held the torch higher than Dryden.

I was lucky to watch him and meet him. Hockey was lucky to have him.

Go, Habs, go. Be yours to hold it high.