Should Paul Henderson be in the Hockey Hall of Fame? It doesn’t seem right to some that the Canadian who scored the epochal goal is yet to be enshrined while the Soviet who failed to stop it, Vladislav Tretiak, was inducted in 1989. Opinion by dfeschuk
Henderson has been handed nearly every other honour imaginable, sure. He is a member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame. He has been awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. And he’s had no shortage of support from newspaper scribes and parliamentarians who have lobbied for his invitation to the annual induction ceremony at hockey’s Yonge Street shrine.
The Hockey Hall of Fame seems to favour players with more robust career resumés. Henderson was a fine Maple Leaf. He led the team with a career-high 38 goals in 1971-72. He played more than 1,000 professional games when you combine his 12 years in the NHL with his five-year run in the WHA. But even Henderson is well aware that none of that reads like the text on a Hall of Fame plaque.
Of course, it’s difficult to know precisely what kind of argument would sway the required votes from the selection committee. It was 25 years ago that Scotty Morrison, the NHL’s former referee in chief, who was then a member of the selection committee, offered some rare public insight into Henderson’s chances at that time.
Before Clarke joined the selection committee in 2014 he was quoted making arguments both for and against Henderson’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
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