'Long John' Henderson dies at 91, was Bruins' oldest living goalie

5 Oct 2024

NHL.com

Ahead of his time, employed crouching style because of 6-foot-5 frame

By Dave Stubbs

@Dave_Stubbs NHL.com Columnist

October 05, 2024

John Henderson, who had been the Boston Bruins' oldest living goalie, died Friday in White Rock, British Columbia following an illness. At 91, he was the NHL’s second-oldest goalie, second only to Hall of Fame legend Glenn Hall, who turned 93 on Oct. 3.

Henderson, nicknamed “Long John” for his extraordinary height of 6-foot-5, was just nine years younger than the Bruins, who on Dec. 1 will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first game in franchise history.

The native of Toronto, born March 25, 1933, played in 46 regular-season NHL games, all for Boston, appearing in 45 games in 1954-55, then one more in 1955-56. He played twice in the 1955 postseason, losing each games.

Henderson was credited with 15 regular-season wins, 14 losses and 16 ties, with a 2.58 goals-against average, .857 save percentage and five shutouts.

But the goalie’s career was about much more than his brief NHL tenure, grinding through the minor pros and enjoying successful careers in senior-league hockey and a variety of business ventures.

John Henderson at home on Jan. 25, 2021 with an engraved silver tray celebrating the 1958 world championship win of the Whitby Dunlop, and in a portrait taken following the 1958-59 OHA Senior season at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. From left: the John Ross Robertson Cup, Allan Cup and W.A. Hewitt Trophy.

Henderson’s hockey journey meandered through North America and traveled an ocean, beginning with minor and junior in his hometown. He graduated to the NHL with Boston, moved back into the minor pros across Canada and the U.S., and back into Ontario, where with the Whitby Dunlop he won the 1957 and 1959 Canadian senior-league Allan Cup championship.

With Whitby, Henderson would sail the Atlantic to Oslo, Norway, winning a gold medal with Canada’s representative in the 1958 world championship, a teammate of future Bruins architect Harry Sinden.

He was destined for the Toronto Maple Leafs four years earlier, their property out of the major-junior Toronto Marlboros, but a strong streak of independence derailed him before he ever got started.

Henderson towered above other goalies of the day and had learned to play the position in a deep crouch. But during Maple Leafs training camp in 1954, he was instructed to play a stand-up game like their veteran Harry Lumley, who also had a knob of tape wrapped halfway down the shaft of his stick; a blocker hand hitting the knob was a reminder to stand up straight.

“Harry was 5 inches shorter than me,” Henderson told NHL.com in conversation a few years ago. “I tried to play stand-up at camp but I couldn’t do it, I was (terrible). I skated off the ice, went into the dressing room, cut the tape off with a knife then went out and started playing well, like I knew I could.

Goalie John Henderson poses for an on-ice action portrait as a member of the major-junior Toronto Marlboros during the early 1950s at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Henderson would join the Boston Bruins in 1954-55, later backstopping the Whitby Dunlop to senior-league Allan Cup championships in 1957 and 1959 and a gold medal for Canada at the 1958 World Championship in Oslo, Norway.

“(General manager) Hap Day realized what I’d done, called me over to the boards and asked who’d given me permission to cut the tape off. I told him, ‘I did. I tried it your way, I can’t adjust to it. I have to crouch. You liked me enough to bring me here, why change me?’

“Hap said, ‘Well, that’s not the way we do things around here,’ and he walked away. I thought, ‘Well, that’s the end of that.’ But a couple days later, I was traded to the Bruins.”

Dealt on Sept. 23, 1954 for defenseman Ray Gariepy, Henderson arrived in Boston as insurance for “Sugar” Jim Henry, who was in the final season of his career.

But Henderson seized the No. 1 job, playing 45 games in 1954-55 to Henry’s 27. The first two of his five rookie-season shutouts came in his third and fourth NHL games, in Toronto against the team that had just unloaded him, and at home against the Montreal Canadiens.

He never could figure how he stymied the Canadiens’ Maurice Richard, who scored just twice against him in seven 1954-55 games. Henderson recalls foiling Richard on three breakaways during a 4-2 win at Boston Garden on March 13, 1955.

“'Rocket' was red in the face, being stoned by a rookie,” he said.

From left: Leo Labine, Bob Armstrong, goalie John Henderson, Sid Smith, Leo Boivin and Ted Kennedy in Nov. 20, 1954 action during the Boston Bruins’ 1-0 win against Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens.

It was after the third miss that Richard and Bruins defenseman Hal Laycoe got their sticks up, their ensuing battle leading to Richard slugging linesman Cliff Thompson. The Canadiens star was promptly suspended for the final three games of the season and the entire Stanley Cup Playoffs, which touched off the infamous March 17 Richard Riot in Montreal.

“Richard and Laycoe dueled right in front of me,” Henderson said. “But I wasn’t big enough, strong enough or man enough to get involved. I thought, ‘If you guys want to fight, that’s your business.’ ”

Henderson would play one final game that season and one more in 1955-56, the Bruins having acquired Terry Sawchuk, then 25, from the Detroit Red Wings in a nine-player blockbuster trade on June 3, 1955.

“I looked at it and said, ‘The guy (Sawchuk) who’s taken my place is an amazing goaltender. He’s just three years older than me. I’m going to be in the American (Hockey) League the rest of my life. To heck with that,’ ” Henderson said. “I sent the Bruins a letter and told them I was quitting, but I’d come back if they could find another team that would give me a chance. That never happened.”

For another 14 seasons, he knocked around North America in the minor pros and for a few years with Whitby, with whom he won two Allan Cup titles and the world championship.

His final season was with Hershey of the AHL in 1969-70. Last year, a week before his 90th birthday, the Bears inducted Henderson into their Hall of Fame, treating the goalie, his wife, Pat, and his family royally.

In 1998, he has been enshrined with his Dunlop teammates by the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame.

The 1956-57 Ontario Senior A Whitby Dunlop. Goalie John Henderson is in the middle row, fourth player from left. Defenseman Harry Sinden, the future Boston Bruins GM and coach, is in the front row, far left. Wren Blair, future Minnesota North Stars GM and coach who in 1962 as a Bruins scout signed Bobby Orr to the major-junior Oshawa Generals, is in the front row, center. The Dunlop were winners that season of (from left) the W.A. Hewitt Trophy, the Allan Cup and the John Ross Robertson Cup.

But even leaving Hershey in 1970, his career wasn’t quite finished. Early in the 1972-73 season, his old friend Laycoe came calling, Henderson then working in Vancouver as a telephone company salesman. Laycoe, GM of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, was down two goalies because of injury and talked his former Bruins teammate into dressing for practices.

Henderson signed a small contract with the Canucks and even wound up on Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum bench as Ed Dyck’s backup on Dec. 3, 1972.

In his final years, he enjoyed tuning in to the games that interested him, impressed by the speed of the skaters and the quality of goaltending. A few years ago, he said he still thought warmly of Boston, his only NHL team, but admitted Toronto burned more brightly in his heart, having come up through the Maple Leafs organization.

And like it were yesterday, Henderson still remembered signing his NHL contract at Maple Leaf Gardens six-plus decades ago.

“(Team owner) Conn Smythe had me in his office at a 12-foot table,” he said. “Beside him was Hap Day, (coach) King Clancy, Smythe’s son, Stafford, and a doctor and a lawyer. I was on the other side of the table, alone. Smythe told me I’d be paid $4,500 if I were assigned to the AHL, $7,000 if I stuck with the Leafs. I told him, ‘I appreciate that Mr. Smythe, but I was thinking more…’ and he screamed at me, ‘Sign it!’ ”

Then, with a laugh: “I signed. And I almost wet my pants.”

Top photo: Bruins goalie John Henderson in action during Boston’s 2-1 victory against Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens on Jan. 5, 1955. From left: Murray Costello, Henderson, Leo Boivin (on the ice), Bill Quackenbush, Tod Sloan and Parker MacDonald.