The Montreal Canadiens opened Bell Centre for the 2025-26 NHL season on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken. After a 2-1-0 road trip to begin the season, they finally made their home debut. The Canadiens remembered Ken Dryden, the legendary goalie who died in September, with an incredible tribute.
The tribute video begins with former Canadiens captain Bob Gainey reading an excerpt from Dryden’s famed autobiography “The Game.” Widely considered the best hockey book ever written, the book follows Dryden as he wrestles with the choice to retire while backstopping the eventual champion 1979 Canadiens.
“We’d like teammates and opponents to make us higher. We would like to do something more vital than ourselves.” The excerpt read, “We try since it matters to us, we try since it’s more fun that way. We practice because we wish to be good. We do not quit since it doesn’t feel right after we do. We play a game. Not only a game, we dream, we imagine, we hope. Because there’s at all times a way. We’re players.”
Because the passage continued, highlights of Dryden’s profession with each the Canadiens and the Canadian National Team played on the screen. It ended with clips from his jersey retirement ceremony in 2007. Dryden’s 29 stays within the Bell Centre rafters, he’s within the Hockey Hall of Fame, and won five Vezina Trophies as top goalie of the season.
Dryden’s impact goes far beyond the ice, as he famously obtained a law degree while playing within the NHL. After his playing profession, he wrote books, was an analyst for multiple Olympics, including the 1980 Miracle on Ice, worked within the Toronto Maple Leafs’ front office, and had a political profession.
The Canadiens scored a late goal within the third period to send the sport to time beyond regulation on Tuesday. They beat the Kraken 5-4 in the additional frame.