Peter McCully: I'm Peter McCully. It's season three of the Pulse Community Podcast here on mid-Vancouver Island. The kids are back in school, and weather's hinting at fall. In fact, the mornings are finally cool enough that I've had to dig my jacket back out of the closet.

Dave Graham: And I'm Dave Graham. Oof. Yeah, feeling that chill myself. Well, partly because I hear the local rink is already accepting signups for their learn to skate classes. Before you say anything, no, I will not be signing up.

Peter McCully: Dave, nobody asked.

Dave Graham: Oh, people always ask, Peter, with their eyes. Look, I never learned how to skate when I was a kid. My idea of a winter sport is to sit where it's warm and dry and watch other people do winter sports. Skating for me is less gliding and more uncontrolled falling repeatedly, in front of witnesses.

Peter McCully: Well, that does sound like a Dave Graham specialty.

Dave Graham: I was living in England when I was of the age to learn to skate, and that's just not a thing there. So back in Canada, whenever there was a pickup game of hockey, they always put me in goal because I couldn't skate well enough for any other position. It was difficult being sent down the ice, isolated. Not that much fun. So you know what? I am gonna sign up for those skating classes. But there will be some expenses.

Peter McCully: What, are you asking me to sponsor you?

Dave Graham: Get in now before the rates go up. I replaced all my smart appliances, as you probably know. I've got dumb ones now, so I'm on a pretty tight budget. But I also feel the pressure to skate, because skating is, as we all know, pretty much a mandatory part of being a Canadian. I'm gonna need the equipment, though. Skates, laces, sharpening, helmet, padding, and probably still more padding. As sponsor, your name will be all over it. What an opportunity.

Peter McCully: Well, I'll think about it. In the meantime, today's podcast is brought to you in part by Ian Lindsay and Associates, serving the mid-Vancouver Island area.

Dave Graham: You'll find real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Peter McCully: On this podcast, we'll chat with Hunter Dryden, the grandson of Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden, and the son of Olympic gold medalist Tammy Shewchuk-Dryden. Hunter signed on with the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL.

Hunter Dryden: I really try and be a student of hockey and just read the game as much as possible, read the play. I also try and control momentum. I think that's a really big thing for a goalie. You can kind of be the keeper of momentum at times, just trying to make a big save when your team needs it, or just really being steady. I think that's super important, because if a team can have trust in you, then you're gonna have trust in them, and vice versa. I've always found that to be really helpful, is just controlling momentum, and if you're gonna be able to do that, you're gonna have success in the game.

Dave Graham: And as for people who've found their own rhythm, I give you Paul Black, an award-winning Victoria-based blues rock singer-songwriter, whose journey began with gospel and country, before Stevie Ray Vaughan changed everything. He brings music to the podcast and some advice for anyone starting out on a musical journey.

Paul Black: It's nice to get it from your peers who are actually musicians also in the blues community. It makes you feel like you're going in the right direction with something. I don't sit down and go, ‘Okay, I'm gonna write a blues song.’ I just start playing, and if it comes out that way, your influences come out with what you're into anyway. And it helps, it's a feather in the hat if it can get you some different gigs, that kind of thing.

Dave Graham: On a future edition of the podcast, Ken Needham, who has spent close to five decades volunteering with Arrowsmith Search and Rescue, helping people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

Peter McCully: And award-winning swimmer Melanie Buggy chats with us. The 33-year-old marathon swimmer crossed the Strait of Georgia from Sechelt to Schooner Cove in record time.

Dave Graham: Ann Vriend is a multi-award-winning singer-songwriter who leads the all-female group AV and the Inner City, and she's bringing that sound to Vancouver Island.

Duende Libre: Hey everyone, my name is Alex Chadsey, and I'm the pianist and band leader with award-winning trio Duende Libre. Get ready for a musical journey without borders when we come to Char's Landing on October 3rd. Our music celebrates the connections between jazz and rhythms from Cuba, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. What sets us apart, aside from our eclectic sonic palette, is our emphatic onstage chemistry, formed by a decade of performing, touring, and recording together. So get your tickets, and we'll see you on October 3rd at Char's Landing.

Marilyn: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay & Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network, since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Peter McCully: We have a new contest on the go with the folks at Parks West in Parksville. We're giving away $50 worth of art supplies. Choose from pencil crayons, markers, sketchbooks, and more.

Dave Graham: To enter to win, fill out the form at the contest link and answer a question based on our kids' stories. Tell us either the name of Captain Dave's first mate or Gracie the Eskimo Dog's owner.

Peter McCully: You'll find those links on our website, ThePulseCommunity.ca. Also on Facebook and Instagram. And while you're at it, check out the colouring pages that come with each new episode of our kids' story series, The Mellow Submarine and Peter and Gracie.

Dave Graham: They are really good colouring pages, too. Some are pretty hard, but I find it helpful to keep my pencils and crayons nice and sharp. Okay, it's time for our first guest. Here's Marilyn.

Marilyn: Paul Black is a Victoria-based blues rock singer-songwriter whose journey began with gospel and country before Stevie Ray Vaughan changed everything. From his early band Taxi to his acclaimed solo albums Blue Words and Beautiful Sin, Paul's soulful guitar work and songwriting have earned a Canadian Blues Music Award nod.

Peter McCully: Welcome to the podcast today, Paul.

Paul Black: Thanks, Peter.

Peter McCully: You've been travelling up and down the island this past summer.

Paul Black: Yeah, a little bit. Some gigs here and there. It's been a lot of fun, actually. It's been a good summer.

Peter McCully: That must be a long drive from Victoria to Gold River. I know you were just doing a gig in that area.

Paul Black: I'd never been there, and there was someone who came down to a gig here locally at the COTA and saw us and said, ‘Can you bring the band up?’ The band couldn't do it, so I said, ‘I'll do it solo.’ A really nice place, though. Great drive. It was a good gig, too.

Peter McCully: Where did you grow up, Paul, and what kind of music was being listened to in the house when you were a youngster?

Paul Black: I grew up in a little town, Thornhill, just outside of Terrace, BC. Most of the music, it was a little bit of country. My dad was a country fan, the old Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings kind of thing, and my mom was more of the religious side of music. And then I had a couple older brothers who were into old rock, whatever albums were cool at the time in the late '70s, early '80s.

Peter McCully: You mentioned albums in particular. I understand the Columbia Music Club just went out of business. Was this prevalent around your house? Did you get the mail order albums?

Paul Black: That wasn't around up there when I was growing up. I didn't see that till I actually moved down here in the late '90s and took advantage of that.

Peter McCully: Oh, there were great albums around our house. We had Glen Campbell, Anne Murray, the Carpenters, the Union Gap, everybody that was popular at the time. So what kind of music did you prefer listening to growing up?

Paul Black: I was into heavy rock. I guess it's probably like soft rock now by comparison. But I was into Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. That's what I was exposed to. And then someone gave me a tape of Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced? And I'm thinking, ‘This guy is wild.’ I wanted to get more into this, and this is before I was even playing guitar, so I just kind of dug the way he wrote prior to even thinking about being a musician.

Peter McCully: And now you're predominantly a blues musician, and I understand the person that put you on that road was a cousin who gave you tickets to see some guy named Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Paul Black: Some of you may have heard of him. That was Expo '86, actually, and I came down with my brother, and my cousin Carl lives in Vancouver. His friend bailed on the ticket because he wanted to ski in Whistler, and he said, ‘Do you wanna go?’ I'd never heard of the guy, so I thought, ‘I'll check it out. It's a free concert.’ It just blew my mind, as far as the intensity of what this guy was doing. I'd never seen anything like that. And up in Terrace, you don't get a lot of people who make the mecca for concerts, so if you wanted to see a good concert back then you had to drive or fly down to Vancouver or maybe Prince George.

Peter McCully: After that, did you dive into some of the more famous blues musicians?

Paul Black: Like I said, I got into Hendrix. Then you go, ‘Okay, who were their influences?’ And these guys are all saying Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, of course, for the acoustic side of things. So you just start diving into that and seeing what that's all about.

Peter McCully: Anyone in particular leave a pretty deep fingerprint on how you play today?

Paul Black: It's a jump between Hendrix and Stevie, and I think I still have the rock side of things, because I play pretty heavy-handed. I think there's still that influence there, because I like the intensity of that kind of blues. But I also play a lot of acoustic. I got into Taj Mahal for a while. I really liked his vibe. It was really cool, and I went and saw him a couple times at The Royal here, and really liked his acoustic stuff.

Peter McCully: Now, what made you leave for Victoria? How did that city end up shaping your sound?

Paul Black: I was touring through here around February. Everyone was in shorts, and I'm thinking, ‘This is a great place to be if you can be in shorts as opposed to 20 below up north.’ So I just sent for my stuff. I didn't go back. The blues scene was pretty prevalent back then. It was, I think, '94, '95. I just started going to the jams, and all the guys who were playing, and jumping in on a couple of bands, and just stayed.

Peter McCully: And you formed a band called Taxi, very popular in the Victoria area. What was the blues scene like when you were starting out?

Paul Black: I thought it was a really good blues scene. I mean, I'm comparing it to Terrace. Doing the blues stuff was a lot more prevalent here, and then we started doing gigs over in Vancouver, going to the Yale, which was a great blues club back then. Unfortunately, it's gone. I think it's a country bar now. I thought it was just a mecca for music. There's a lot of great musicians on the island. You might not always see them, but they're here, and when you do see them, you're kind of blown away about the level of talent.

Peter McCully: So the band Taxi that you formed landed a spot on the Rocktoria compilation and got an eight out of ten from Rolling Stone.

Paul Black: Actually, I recorded the album, and then the Cue called me and said, ‘You wanna do Rocktoria?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ And I didn't have a band. I was actually getting my car fixed out at Brentwood Salvage, and a guy named Curtis Lipe said, ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I'm a musician.’ He said, ‘I'm the best drummer ever. You should hire me.’ So I did. I was impressed by his arrogance, and he was a great drummer too. Then I found a friend of his, David Augustine, and we just formed Taxi and started gigging.

Peter McCully: So that early recognition with the eight out of ten from Rolling Stone, the big thumbs up there, that must have been great for your confidence as a young musician.

Paul Black: That definitely does help, because you start to wonder. You write for yourself what you think is cool, and you really hope other people like what you're doing, whether they do or not. And to get some confirmation that it's good stuff, it just boosts you to keep going, really.

Peter McCully: I wanted to ask you about the Vancouver Island Original Music Competition and the province-wide Shaw Star Discovery competition. They had some pretty good judges. A judge from Sony Music, EMI, a judge from the House of Blues. What do you remember about that?

Paul Black: That's when I was doing Taxi. It was a showcase over at the PNE, and we did win for our song, but there was this really phenomenal opera singer, so the EMI guy picked her up right away. Then I think the guy who played the year after, and sang, and was discovered, was Michael Bublé.

Peter McCully: Really?

Paul Black: Yeah, he did the Shaw Star Discovery, and then our local guy here, David Foster, found out about him, and, well, you know where he's at.

Peter McCully: Yeah. Let's skip ahead to your album Blue Words, I think it was around 2010, which enjoyed some rotation in Europe and the U.S. Why do you think that record connected overseas the way it did?

Paul Black: Oh, man, if I had the recipe for that, I would do it over and over again. I've never been able to get over there and play. I would love to. I got some really great rotation in places like Denmark, the Netherlands, and oddly enough, Singapore. I sold a lot of physical albums, which I was shocked by. I'm happy about it, but I was a little surprised by that.

Peter McCully: So then there was this long gap after you recorded Blue Words, partly due to a severed tendon in your left hand. Tell us about that. That must be a nightmare for a guitarist.

Paul Black: Yeah, that set me back a little bit. Happened at work. I tore it right off the bone on the wrist, so I had to get surgery, and I was in a cast for nine months, I think it was. But the doctor was nice enough. He said, ‘You can still play,’ so he put the cast in an angled position so I could still play guitar and keep my fingers going, but I didn't do any gigs or anything. It was a big, long recovery. Got back on the saddle there and started gigging soon after.

Peter McCully: Now, did that injury change the way you play even after it healed?

Paul Black: That one didn't. I had, oddly enough, another injury after that that changed the way I played guitar. I severed the tendon on the back of my left hand that moves your pinky up and down, so I had to change and use more of my three fingers as opposed to that pinky a little bit. Just little setbacks, I guess.

Peter McCully: And then along came COVID, which gave every musician in the world pretty much time to ruminate, fine-tune performances, and get down to some serious writing.

Paul Black: I think a lot of people did that. I jumped heavily into doing the solo acoustic thing, because there was that restriction of 70 decibels or louder, so poor drummers, they lost all their gigs. I was playing behind a piece of plexiglass at a pub, and it was a little sterile, but I got fairly decent at using a looping pedal and playing solo acoustic, and doing a lot of writing.

Peter McCully: Was there an album that came out of that?

Paul Black: This last album that I released, I started it before COVID, and I had probably a third of it done, and everything shut down. Then when I went back to it after COVID, I just didn't like it. I had too much time to think about it, I think. So I scrapped the whole thing and started from scratch. I think that's a good thing, because you get to sit with it for a while, and actually listen to it and go, ‘Maybe that doesn't work.’ Wrote a couple of songs that I threw quickly on the album after that, too, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Peter McCully: That was the album Beautiful Sin that you were talking about. I understand you had a much more hands-on involvement in the overall sound of that particular album.

Paul Black: Yeah, it was nice to do it with a buddy of mine, Wynn Gogel, who played all the keyboards on it, and he was a producer. He was really good about experimenting. I'm always about options, let's try this, let's try this. I had three different drummers on it, and it's like, ‘That one sounded the best. No offense to the other drummer,’ but sometimes it just gels. And I couldn't get my bass player down here from up island, so I just wrote the bass on it and performed that too, just out of impatience, maybe. I'm not sure.

Peter McCully: There's a tune I wanted to ask you about, Live It Like You're Never Gonna Die. I understand you wrote that in under an hour with a coffee and an acoustic guitar. Do the songs usually come that fast for you, or was that highly unusual?

Paul Black: A little more unusual. They don't usually come that fast, especially the lyrics. But that's one of the ones I wrote during COVID, and then came back and said, ‘I would like to do this and throw this on the album.’ For me, they're never that quick, but that one just came out really smooth. It was actually my wife who said, ‘I kind of like that.’ So I was like, ‘Well, I better keep writing something like that.’

Peter McCully: Do you do many acoustic shows?

Paul Black: I've been doing more acoustic than electric, just because trying to get people together is a little tougher these days. Everyone's so busy. All the good players are busy. So yeah, I've been doing probably three to one acoustic shows.

Peter McCully: I've been going through some of your discography and listening, and some of the music is fantastic. I love your voice, by the way.

Paul Black: Thank you. Appreciate that, man.

Peter McCully: And I was really taken when I was going through the list of tunes by Brick House by the Commodores. It was, I thought, a very interesting cover for you to do, being a blues singer, and you certainly made it your own.

Paul Black: We used to play at Bart's Pub in Victoria here. One night I just started playing the revolving bass line, and we just started playing it. I didn't even know the lyrics, to tell you the honest truth, and it went over really well. It's just a more upbeat, rocky vibe to it, and it's a lot of fun to play.

Song: Paul Black - Brick House

Peter McCully: Now, whether you're writing a song from scratch or covering a song like we just heard, Brick House by the Commodores, how do you decide which direction a song is going to go in for you, whether that be blues or rock or even soul funk that we just heard?

Paul Black: I do a lot of my writing on the acoustic, because I find for the most part it'll transfer over to electric if it's got a good groove and a good vibe. But usually I stick to what initially grabs me about the song. Any guitar player, singer, or songwriter says there's something that initially grabs you about that, and you wanna capture it and record it quickly, because you always think, ‘I'm gonna remember this,’ and you never do. I never do. I wake up in the middle of the night and I'll record stuff, because it'll pop into my head. I usually go with the first feel of the song. I usually come up with the music first and the lyrics second. That's my process, anyway.

Peter McCully: What does a Paul Black song need to have, no matter how much your sound evolves?

Paul Black: I'm always big on the groove. I just like the way things move. I really work hard on the lyrics just to make them a little bit different. I want it to make sense. I want people to listen to it and go, ‘I know what that's about,’ because sometimes I used to write so far out there, everyone's like, ‘This guy either doesn't know what he's doing or he's taking way too many drugs, because I can't understand what he's singing about.’ So I really work the lyrics pretty hard and change them a lot.

Peter McCully: You've had a Canadian Blues Music Award nod. What does recognition from the blues community specifically mean for you as a musician versus commercial success?

Paul Black: Affirmation, and it's nice to get it from your peers who are actually musicians also in the blues community. But it makes you feel like you're going in the right direction with something. I don't sit down and go, ‘I'm gonna write a blues song.’ I just start playing, and if it comes out that way, your influences come out with what you're into anyway. And it helps, it's a feather in the hat if it can get you some different gigs. I've already gotten calls from the Edmonton Blues Society and places like that. They wanna get me out next spring.

Peter McCully: What's next for Paul Black?

Paul Black: I was thinking of going in and starting recording probably next week. I've got a bunch of songs, not necessarily all blues. I think I've got some stuff that almost sounds a little bit country, soul, blues. A fair amount of acoustic in there, so yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Peter McCully: If you had some advice, Paul, for the younger generation of musicians who are interested in the blues, what might that be?

Paul Black: I would say listen to everything. Years ago, I remember reading an article about Buddy Guy, and he said, ‘Just keep your hands on your strings.’ I kind of stuck that in my head. I can't even watch a show in the house without having my guitar in my lap. That, and just listen to everything and start writing, because your writing will get better. I still have recordings of my first writings that I will never let anyone listen to. You just progress as a musician. The more writing you do, the better you get at it.

Dave Graham: Paul Black, gospel and country roots, a Buddy Guy quote that never left him, and a guitar that apparently doesn't leave his lap even during TV night. That's the kind of dedication that turns into a Canadian Blues Music Award nod. You'll find links to Paul's music in our story notes at ThePulseCommunity.ca.

Peter McCully: Keep your hands on your strings might be the best piece of advice we've had on this show in a while.

Dave Graham: Hands on your strings, eye on the ball, stick on the ice. All good advice. I also like hope for the best and plan for the worst. And, oh, my favourite: a chocolate bar a day keeps the cravings at bay. Before we get to our next guest, a reminder that we've added Vancouver Island webcam links and podcast links to our website. So now you can watch the roads and find other Vancouver Island podcasts to enjoy. Check it out at ThePulseCommunity.ca.

Peter McCully: You'll also find us on Apple, Amazon, iHeart, Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube. We're also on Facebook and Instagram.

Dave Graham: If you have someone in mind that you think we should be talking to, then please speak to us. You can reach us and leave a voice or text message. Head to our website. Click on the contact link at ThePulseCommunity.ca.

Thrifty Foods Parksville: At Thrifty Foods, we love to help nonprofits, charities, and schools. Our Thrifty Foods Smile Card bulk program allows organizations to immediately save up to 6% on the purchase of Smile Cards in bulk, allowing you to keep more money in your organization's pockets. Ask for details at Thrifty Foods in Parksville.

Marilyn: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay & Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network, since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Peter McCully: All right, Dave, you've avoided the ice all episode. Think you can handle one more hockey story?

Dave Graham: I can handle it just fine from right here in the safety of this chair, thank you. Okay, let's get to it. Here's Marilyn.

Marilyn: Hunter Dryden is the grandson of Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden and the son of Olympic gold medalist Tammy Shewchuk-Dryden. A goaltender in his own right, Hunter honed his game at Taft School in Connecticut last year, posting a .911 save percentage before signing on with the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL.

Peter McCully: Welcome to the podcast today, Hunter.

Hunter Dryden: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Peter McCully: Hunter is such a great first name. Were you named after someone in particular?

Hunter Dryden: Not really. My parents just named me from the name they liked most, so I guess that's where Hunter comes from.

Peter McCully: Now, you've just graduated from Taft School in Connecticut, where you grew up, and you've signed with the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL for the coming season, which makes us here on Vancouver Island very happy. Have you been to British Columbia before signing?

Hunter Dryden: Yes, I've been twice. I came down once over Thanksgiving break when I first started talking with the team, just to skate a couple times, practice. I also came down during the summer to check out the scenery and stuff like that. We did a West Coast trip with my family, watched a few of the World Cup games in San Francisco and Vancouver, then checked out Victoria for a bit as well.

Peter McCully: Did I read somewhere you were going to drive from Massachusetts to Vancouver Island?

Hunter Dryden: Originally, my family was thinking of driving from Connecticut or Massachusetts to Victoria. We're just shipping my car now, so it's easier. I'll just fly.

Peter McCully: And all that goalie gear, right? Gonna ship all of that.

Hunter Dryden: Yeah.

Peter McCully: We've chatted with many goalies on this podcast over the years, as I played that position as a youngster. Connor LaCouvee, a pro goalie from the island who plays in Europe, retired Canuck goaltender Richard Brodeur, comedian Brent Butt, and Grant Lawrence, a writer and broadcaster. Most all started between the pipes because they weren't the strongest skaters.

Hunter Dryden: That's actually a pretty similar story to what I have. When I was younger, I played youth hockey, and my parents didn't want me to be a goalie at all. They threw me out to be a forward, and I hated it. I was taller than most of the other kids my age, and I wasn't very coordinated, and I just wasn't a good skater, and I hated doing power skating, stuff like that. Selfishly, I don't think I really liked not being on the ice, being on the bench, so goalie just seemed like a good deal, where I thought I didn't have to skate as much, even though you actually have to be a very good skater then. I was also able to be on the ice the whole time.

Peter McCully: Yeah, I was a little disappointed when I found out you had to be able to skate backwards as fast as the guy coming towards you.

Hunter Dryden: Exactly, yeah.

Peter McCully: Now, did you play other sports growing up? I ask that because I see your dad, Michael, played some hockey and some baseball.

Hunter Dryden: I played baseball as well growing up. My dad played at Harvard for baseball. He kind of threw me into baseball as well as hockey. It was pretty fun. I wasn't a good baseball player at all, but I played for a year at Taft as well before I was kind of done with it. I actually am the all-time leader in prep school on base percentage, because I had one at-bat and I walked.

Peter McCully: Now, the New England area has played into your family history in a pretty big way. Your grandfather, Ken, was a standout goaltender for Cornell, and he was drafted by the Bruins, of course. Your mom, Tammy Shewchuk-Dryden, was the league's all-time leading scorer at Harvard, and you played for Taft School.

Hunter Dryden: I think I'm kind of a New England kid through and through. I was born and raised here in Connecticut. Obviously, it's kind of an interesting dynamic, because my whole family's Canadian. I have my Canadian citizenship as well, so it's tough when it's the Olympics or World Juniors. I'm kind of more rooting for Canada than the US, but I love New England. I've spent my whole life here. So it's definitely gonna be a bit of a change of scenery going out to Victoria, but it's nothing too new.

Peter McCully: Tell us about Taft School, Hunter. I saw some pictures that Siri sent me. It's a big campus. There's 226 acres. It looks really idyllic.

Hunter Dryden: I spent three years at Taft. I went there for hockey and school kind of combined. It's a great combination. It's a boarding school as well. I'm kind of used to living away from home, as I lived there for three years. It's in a more rural part of Connecticut, so that was definitely a bit of a change of scenery. I'm from Fairfield, which is more of a town. There's a bit more to do where I'm from. Hockey was obviously a step up from growing up playing AAA. I'm now 16, my first year playing against 18, 19-year-olds. That was a bit new. When I was younger, my first two years, I didn't really play a lot. I was behind Brady Morse, who plays at Princeton now. My first year, I played one game. Second year, I played three games, and this year I was a starter and played most of every game. That was definitely a transition, but it was definitely something I enjoyed, really becoming the starter this year.

Peter McCully: How big would the school be? How many students are we talking about?

Hunter Dryden: 600. 300 girls, 300 boys.

Peter McCully: And that's enough students to support the kind of sports programs that they have?

Hunter Dryden: I'd say almost 50% of the kids play varsity sports there or are recruited for a sport in some capacity.

Peter McCully: I ran across a note this morning on the internet. I see a coach from Yale is joining the hockey staff.

Hunter Dryden: My head coach from this year left the program, and so the assistant coach from Yale is joining Taft as the new head coach. I think the program will be in good hands. This past year, a lot of us left, so I think it'll be kind of a transition, but I think eventually Taft will become quite good again.

Peter McCully: What are we talking about in terms of curriculum? What is it like at Taft?

Hunter Dryden: It's a hard school. I think it really pushes you there. Kids really push each other as well. The expectation is that you're gonna do well. The acceptance rate for Taft is, I don't know, 20%. They get a lot of kids who apply each year, so once you get there, you're there to do your work. I think it's really helped me, once I get to college or even when I'm away from home this year doing online classes, to push myself and make sure I'm doing the best I can in the classroom.

Peter McCully: Well, if you become homesick in any way, you'll just have to drive out to Royal Roads University. The Colwood campus is a national historic monument, and I think from the pictures anyway, you'll find that it has some similarities to the architecture at Taft.

Hunter Dryden: Taft's architecture is definitely interesting, maybe a little outdated because it's from 1890, but it has a charm to it.

Peter McCully: For those listening in and maybe trying to keep score, Hunter's mom, Tammy, won an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada in 2002. So Mom's a forward, Hunter's a goalie. I'm thinking that any time you needed someone to give you some shots in the driveway, you had the perfect person right there.

Hunter Dryden: On my AAA team growing up in Connecticut, she was always one of the assistant coaches. So whenever I needed a warmup, the head coach would go down and do skating with the forwards, and maybe she'd throw a few warmup shots my way. She hasn't really seen me in a while. I kind of miss those days.

Peter McCully: Now, your mom has coached at the university level as well. So has she coached you directly, or is it perhaps just offering advice to keep it all in perspective?

Hunter Dryden: The way I would describe it is that since she was a forward, she can't really offer the most advice on the position of goaltending, but she's very good at going through what hockey is as a business or as an experience, and offering her own insights from what she experienced going through Olympic training or playing at Harvard. She also went to Taft for a year. She may not be able to offer me technique advice, but she can be more of a mentor on how to go through your own things when you're in the rink.

Peter McCully: Now, your dad, Michael, isn't the hockey name in the family the way your mom and your grandfather were.

Hunter Dryden: My dad played baseball at Harvard. He was a pitcher. The way I kind of describe it is he's also very good at the mental side, because pitching is the closest thing to goaltending that isn't being a goalie. It's a pretty isolating position as well, so he'd often relate goaltending back to pitching, and there'd be some similarities there, and I found that helpful as well.

Peter McCully: Well, there's a lot of focus from the crowd on the pitcher and on the goaltender.

Hunter Dryden: Sometimes you try not to get too overwhelmed by it, but I think he's offered good advice on how you just stay focused on your job and how you just stay set and stay in the moment.

Peter McCully: Hunter, you'll be sharing the crease in Victoria with Mikus Vecvanags, the Montreal Canadiens draft pick, your grandfather's old team. That's a bit of a fun coincidence, isn't it?

Hunter Dryden: Yeah, it is a funny coincidence, but I'm super excited for it. He's a super high-level goaltender who had a great year for Victoria last year, so I'm excited to learn from him and be a good goalie partner to him.

Peter McCully: You're listed as being 6'4". You take a lot of net away. How would you describe your style in the crease?

Hunter Dryden: I would describe my style as obviously being big, but that's never enough. You also have to be a good skater. You have to have good technique. I really try and be a student of hockey and just read the game as much as possible, read the play. I also try and control momentum, and I think that's a really big thing for a goalie. You can kind of be the keeper of momentum at times, just trying to make a big save when your team needs it, or, say, you're up one goal, just really being steady. I think that's super important, because if a team can have trust in you, then you're gonna have trust in them, and vice versa. I've always found that to be really helpful, is just controlling momentum, and if you're gonna be able to do that, you're gonna have success in the game.

Peter McCully: Sounds like you've got it figured out, Hunter.

Hunter Dryden: I try.

Peter McCully: What's your training look like right now, heading into your first BCHL season? Are you like Rocky? Do you do the six raw eggs every morning and run 20 miles?

Hunter Dryden: So I work with a trainer in Fairfield. His name is Rob Dombrowski. He's a great trainer. He's helped me immensely, and he's really focused on more science-based stuff, not just killing you with squats and bench press, but actually doing what's gonna get the most out of you. I found that to be super helpful.

Peter McCully: What's the biggest technical adjustment you're making moving to the BCHL? Do you think it's the speed, the shot power, the reads?

Hunter Dryden: I think with any level up, it's just the speed. Obviously, the game moves quicker. But other than that, I think it's just more mental, just having confidence in yourself. I think a trap a lot of people get into when they make a jump up is kind of feeling that imposter syndrome, like maybe I'm not good enough. I really try to avoid that and just be confident in the game I play and confident in the goalie I am. If I can do that, I think I'll be successful, because I know when I first went to Taft, I was a little nervous. I was like, ‘I'm younger than these kids, I don't know if I'm ready for this,’ and I've tried to avoid that as much as possible going into this year.

Peter McCully: You've been wearing number 31 for most of your hockey career. Any particular reason why?

Hunter Dryden: I obviously grew up as a Montreal Canadiens fan, and Carey Price was kind of my idol growing up. 31 just kind of seemed natural. I think this year I'll be wearing one, because Mikus wears 31, but 31's always been a number that means a lot to me. I wore it in hockey. I wore it in baseball, even though almost no one wears 31 in baseball. That's why, it's Carey Price.

Peter McCully: And he was a good goaltender.

Hunter Dryden: The best.

Peter McCully: Most goaltenders seem to have kind of a ritual, a warm-up routine, a piece of gear or something that you always do in the dressing room. Do you have one?

Hunter Dryden: Not really. I just try to get dressed at the same time. Once you kind of understand how your body works and how your mind gets ready, I try and start getting ready 30 minutes before. I keep a relatively same warm-up once I'm on the ice, but nothing crazy other than that.

Peter McCully: I would be remiss if I didn't ask you a few questions about your grandfather, who won six Stanley Cups, five Vezina trophies, and a Conn Smythe. He's remembered as one of the smartest people to ever play the position. He's also a lawyer and an author and a cabinet minister. I'm interested to know which version of him showed up most at the dinner table: the goalie, the writer, or the politician?

Hunter Dryden: I would say none of them. I would just say the family man. I think he had quite a different personal life than he did publicly. When we were together, he was just grandpa. He wasn't any of those other things, and that's what really made him special, is that he would do all this great stuff in his day-to-day life and a great variety of things, but he also knew he was a grandpa as well, and he knew that when he was on the ice, he was different than how he was with my dad, for example.

Peter McCully: Your grandfather holds a revered spot in Canadian hockey history, as you are well aware, not only with the Canadiens, but with Team Canada. He was on the ice when Paul Henderson scored for Canada. I wonder if you had the opportunity to talk to him about that particular series at some point.

Hunter Dryden: The Summit Series was probably one of the more proud moments of his career, representing Canada. I think it's like that for a lot of players when they represent their country. He always talked about how games in Russia were a bit tougher, just being the away team. He also spoke very fondly of it and how he was just very proud to be a part of that series.

Peter McCully: He and Vladimir Tretiak formed quite a great relationship later on.

Hunter Dryden: I'm not too familiar with the intricacies of the relationship, but I know they were good friends, and I think they respected each other tremendously.

Peter McCully: I grew up in Nova Scotia, not that far from where you are, and your grandfather played in the AHL with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs for a short time. I think it was only about 30 games before he was called up to play in that Canadiens-Boston series, and he was a standout there, and went on to win the Stanley Cup. Did he relate any good stories about that time in his career?

Hunter Dryden: One of the stories I remember is there was a time he was considering not going professional at all, just going to law school, and eventually the Voyageurs called him and said, ‘We'd like to have you,’ so he went, and I think he may even have been doing some school at the time as well. He never spoke too much about his time in the AHL. It was pretty brief. But that's one I remember, is that he almost didn't end up in the AHL at all.

Peter McCully: You've said that your grandfather was really good with you on the mental side of goaltending, handling the stress of the position, which he, of course, wrote about extensively in the book The Game, which is regarded as one of the best books ever written about hockey.

Hunter Dryden: Being a goalie in the '70s and being a goalie now is very different. However, the mental side of the game really hasn't changed. Someone who plays hockey understands the mental side, and especially if you're a goalie, he could help as well. He always kind of talked to me and asked, ‘What'd you think on this play? How are you feeling?’ And I think that always kind of helped. He would relate that back to his own career and how he felt at certain points.

Peter McCully: Now, you've talked about being Hunter and doing your own thing. Tell us about expectations.

Hunter Dryden: That's always a part of it when you're playing and someone sees your last name on the back of your jersey, and I've always tried not to hide from it or shy away from it, but also to remind people that I'm also my own person. I don't wanna fall back on someone else's legacy, and that's always how I've kind of felt it. I also think those expectations actually make you a better goalie, because it's a high-stress position, so if you live in that high stress a lot of your life, you're more equipped to handle in-game pressures.

Peter McCully: Hunter, how about a speed round of questions?

Hunter Dryden: Yeah, sounds great.

Peter McCully: We'll call them snapshots. Is there a goalie, NHL or otherwise, whose game you've studied or perhaps tried to model yourself after?

Hunter Dryden: I'd say Carey Price for my whole life, and now Jakub Dobes, because I think we play pretty similarly as well.

Peter McCully: Away from the rink, what does Hunter do to unwind? You've talked about the stress of being a goalie. Any hobbies that have nothing to do with hockey?

Hunter Dryden: Watching other sports would be another one of my hobbies, whether it's baseball, soccer, anything like that.

Peter McCully: What kind of gear do you wear? What brand?

Hunter Dryden: I wear True.

Peter McCully: And your stick of choice?

Hunter Dryden: Bauer.

Peter McCully: What's a goalie stick cost these days?

Hunter Dryden: 400 bucks American.

Peter McCully: Diner or cafeteria food?

Hunter Dryden: Diner.

Peter McCully: Summer or winter?

Hunter Dryden: Winter.

Peter McCully: Your favourite NHL team growing up, besides the Canadiens?

Hunter Dryden: Besides the Canadiens, I would say the Flyers.

Peter McCully: Sneakers or skates, which do you have more of?

Hunter Dryden: I would say sneakers. My feet grew pretty quick, so I have a lot of sneakers, and I always like to wear my skates a bit longer than I probably should.

Peter McCully: Dare I ask what size you wear?

Hunter Dryden: 12.

Peter McCully: Best pre-game snack?

Hunter Dryden: Chicken.

Peter McCully: Deep-fried chicken, broiled chicken?

Hunter Dryden: Broiled.

Peter McCully: One word for your grandfather's game.

Hunter Dryden: Cerebral.

Peter McCully: One word for your mom's shot.

Hunter Dryden: Quick.

Peter McCully: Favourite non-hockey sport to watch?

Hunter Dryden: Baseball.

Peter McCully: Shootout or three-on-three overtime, if you have a choice?

Hunter Dryden: Preferably neither, but I'd say shootout.

Peter McCully: You're gonna be on Vancouver Island, so you'll have beach and mountains, but is it beach or mountains?

Hunter Dryden: I prefer the mountains.

Peter McCully: One item you can't live without in your goalie bag?

Hunter Dryden: Probably my goalie mask.

Peter McCully: Best goalie mask design you've ever seen?

Hunter Dryden: I have two. My one from Taft this past year, and then the other one is kind of niche, but when I was growing up, one of my favourite goalies was Jonas Hiller, and he had this black mask and a bright orange cage.

Peter McCully: We should mention at this point that your granduncle Dave Dryden was also a goalie who played against his brother Ken in that famous Buffalo-Montreal game years ago. He was a designer of the modern-day goalie mask.

Hunter Dryden: He designed the modern two-piece goalie mask, where you have the base, then the cage. It was pretty revolutionary. That's kind of what goalies are using now. I think it's pretty cool.

Peter McCully: If you had a chance, Hunter, to sign with any NHL team, who would it be and why?

Hunter Dryden: Probably Dallas or Florida, just so I wouldn't get taxed.

Peter McCully: What's next? Will you be looking to head to a university at some point? Where, and what are you interested in as a major?

Hunter Dryden: Obviously, the short-term goal is just having as successful a time here in Victoria as I can. The long-term goal is to end up playing NCAA hockey. In terms of major, I'm honestly not quite sure yet. I know I wanna stay in hockey after I'm done playing, so I'm kind of figuring it out as I go. But that's kind of what the future's looking like for me right now.

Peter McCully: Well, you're only 19. You have lots of time.

Hunter Dryden: Yeah.

Peter McCully: What's a piece of hockey wisdom that was passed down in the family that you've never heard anywhere else, but it's something that feels like it's just yours and your family's, that you could pass along for younger players coming up?

Hunter Dryden: I think it'd be kind of what I touched on earlier about the momentum side. My dad and my grandpa talked about it with me a lot, and it's something that I really try to take pride in, is just really making that timely save and making the saves that are important. The best goalie in the NHL is letting up two goals a night on average. So it's not that they're letting up a significantly smaller number of goals than the next best goalie. It's that they're not letting up goals at the wrong time. And that's what I've really learned: if the teammates can look back on their goalie and trust them, and know he's got it back here, your team is gonna be more successful, and in turn, you're gonna be more successful. So that's what I would say to a young goalie: if you can earn your teammates' trust and really control the momentum in that way, then that's how you're gonna have the most success.

Dave Graham: Hunter Dryden, a save percentage that would make his grandfather proud, and a whole family tree built on being the person a team can trust in the biggest moments. Keeper of momentum. I might be stealing that line for my own life.

Peter McCully: You'll find details on the Grizzlies season in the story notes.

Dave Graham: Our Skookum Kids stories feature Captain Dave and Larry the Lobster aboard the Mellow Submarine, and Peter and Gracie, the Eskimo Dog. And our kids stories now offer colouring pages to go along with each new episode.

Peter McCully: In this week's episode of The Mellow Submarine, Captain Dave and Larry explore the Craig Bay Caves.

Dave Graham: And our Radio Archaeology classic radio series features original episodes of Dragnet with Sergeant Joe Friday, and Gunsmoke featuring Marshal Matt Dillon.

Peter McCully: As part of our PULSE Community podcasts, join Cindy Thompson of Parksville for A Resilience Project. In the latest episode, Cindy speaks with Steve Anderson, executive director of The Wanted Children Foundation, a child rescue project in Nigeria founded by his oldest daughter, Courtney.

Dave Graham: And this week on Too Old or Movie Gold, the crew review Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal.

Peter McCully: You'll find these podcasts and more at ThePulseCommunity.ca.

Dave Graham: And while you're on the website, sign up for our weekly newsletter. It'll keep you up to date on the latest podcasts, guests, and contests.

Peter McCully: Well, that's a wrap on episode two of season three, Dave.

Dave Graham: It is. And Peter, I've noticed you never actually gave me an answer on that sponsorship opportunity.

Peter McCully: Well, Dave, I'll be honest, that's not really something I'm interested in.

Dave Graham: Deal. That's great. Okay, we should meet soon to talk about design and colour schemes and just how much money I'm going to be needing.

Peter McCully: Dave, perhaps I wasn't clear the first time.

Dave Graham: No, it's okay, Peter. We don't have to talk about it all right now. Okay, folks, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. I'm off to go price some skates. These are gonna be expensive, but my feet are worth it, you know? We're talking about my safety on the ice, after all. Hey, do they come with training wheels?

Rockin' Rhonda & The Uptown Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves, no missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave, so to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere, what a treat. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. All right, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.