Henderson, Bruins' oldest living goalie, had height, independent streak

John Henderson
has seen plenty of goaltending in the 65 years since his final NHL game. Today, at age 87 the Boston Bruins' oldest living goalie, he considers the current crop and says he likes Jakob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames best of all.

It doesn't hurt that before signing with the Flames as a free agent Oct. 9, Markstrom played the previous five seasons for the Vancouver Canucks, who play their home games a little over 30 miles from Henderson's home in White Rock, British Columbia.
But it might mean more, Henderson jokes, that Markstrom (6-foot-6) is just an inch taller than himself.

John Henderson at home on Jan. 25, 2021 with an engraved silver tray celebrating the 1958 world championship win of the Whitby Dunlop, and a 2008 award that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the victory.
"He doesn't give away too many rebounds and he plays his position extremely well," Henderson said. "He weighs what, 205 pounds or so (206, actually)? So he's a little heavier than the 150 I think I was when I began. I assume that's where my nickname 'Long John' came in."
Henderson is one of 107 goalies who have played for the Bruins since their first NHL season of 1924-25, playing 45 games in 1954-55 and one more in 1955-56 before grinding through the minor pros and enjoying successful careers in senior-league hockey and a variety of business ventures.
His hockey journey meandered through North America and traveled an ocean, beginning with minor and junior in his hometown of Toronto. He graduated to the NHL with Boston, moved back into the minor pros across Canada and the U.S., and back into Ontario, where he won the 1957 and 1959 Canadian senior-league Allan Cup championship with the Whitby Dunlop.

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.
With Whitby, Henderson would sail the Atlantic to Oslo, Norway, winning first place with Canada at the 1958 world championship, a teammate of future Bruins architect Harry Sinden.
Henderson 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 the 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 said. "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.

From left: John Henderson, age 17, with the 1950-51 Ontario Junior B Weston Dukes; early 1950s with the major-junior Toronto Marlboros; in his 1954 Toronto Maple Leafs training camp portrait.
"(Toronto 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."
Traded 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 NHL career. But Henderson seized the No. 1 job, playing 45 games in 1954-55 to Henry's 27. The first two of his five shutouts that rookie season 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.

John Henderson guards the Bruins net on Nov. 20, 1954 at Maple Leaf Gardens during his fourth NHL game, the 1-0 victory against Toronto the first of his five career shutouts. From left: Leo Labine, Bob Armstrong, Henderson, Sid Smith, Leo Boivin and Ted Kennedy.
He can't figure how he stymied the Canadiens' Maurice Richard, who scored twice against him in seven 1954-55 games. Henderson recalls foiling Richard on three breakaways at Boston Garden on March 13, 1955.
"Rocket was red in the face, being stoned by a rookie," he said.
It was after the third miss that Richard and the Bruins' Hal Laycoe got their sticks up, their ensuing battle leading to Richard slugging linesman Cliff Thompson. The Canadiens icon 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.' "

John Henderson in an early 1950s Toronto Marlboros publicity photo.
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 trade on June 3, 1955.
"I looked at it," Henderson said, "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 league the rest of my life. To heck with that.'
"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."
His NHL days were done with a 46-game record of 15-14 with 16 ties, five shutouts and a 2.58 goals-against average.
But Henderson couldn't give up the game. For another 10 seasons through 14 years, 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 American League in 1969-70, not that his hockey career was quite finished.

John Henderson tries on his hat for fellow Whitby Dunlop goalie Jack Donlevy on Jan. 27, 1958 as the team prepares to leave for the world championship in Oslo, Norway.
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 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 as Vancouver's backup to Ed Dyck on Dec. 5, 1972.
The visiting Maple Leafs pounced early, with Dyck allowing three first-period goals on their way to a 5-2 win, and a teammate beside a now gravely concerned Henderson, then 39, was telling him, "Are your skates done up? You're going in …"
"There was no [darned] way," Henderson recalled with a laugh. "(Coach) Vic Stasiuk put his foot up on the bench and looked my way. I just looked down. Vic later told me, 'If you hadn't looked away, you were going in.' I'd have loved to, if I'd been in shape. But the guys treated me very nicely. They took me out after the game, one of the boys."

John Henderson poses with trophies won by the 1956-57 Whitby Dunlop.
Today, Henderson enjoys the games he chooses to tune in, impressed by the speed of the skaters and the quality of goaltending. He still thinks warmly of the Bruins, his only NHL team, but admits Toronto burns more brightly in his heart, having come up through the Maple Leafs organization.
And like it were yesterday, he still remembers signing his NHL contract at Maple Leaf Gardens more than 65 years ago.
"(Toronto owner) Conn Smythe had me in his office at a 12-foot table," Henderson 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."
Photos: HHoF Images / Colin McLeod