Election Night Hockey Connection

The man to the left is Yogi Henderson. Yogi reportedly grew up in Winnipeg Centre, a riding I live close to, and currently calls Calgary, Alberta home. He's running as the People's Party of Canada candidate in Winnipeg Centre which, if you know me, bothers me a great deal since he doesn't even live in the riding he's representing. I'm posting this after the polls close tonight because I went digging into Yogi Henderson's history after one of his pamphlets ended up on my desk with his experience showing that he spent 17 years as a hockey referee in the CAHA, WHL, and NHL. There's the hockey connection, so let's take a look at Henderson's work in stripes before he potentially gets to Ottawa as the representative for the Winnipeg Centre riding in the House of Commons.

According to Henderson's pamphlet,

"After spending winters barnstorming much of western Canada during my teens as a Major Junior hockey official, I returned to Manitoba in order to complete my Civil Engineering degree at the U of M. The autumn after graduation, I enjoyed a two-game stint in the NHL as a linesman."

His notes show that he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1993, so his NHL stint would have been in 1993-94 if the timeline matches his written description. In taking a closer look at that period of time, it becomes apparent that Henderson's promotion to the NHL wasn't based on merit, but on need.

Going by his legal given name of "George", Henderson was an NHL linesman for the two games as he stated, but those two games took place between mid-November and December 1, 1993 when the NHL officials went on strike after their contract demands were not met by the NHL. With the regular NHL officials walking off the job, the NHL was forced to pull officials from minor leagues, junior levels, and amateur hockey in order to keep the '93-94 season going after starting it in October.

Replacement officials were paid $800 per game for referees and $500 per game for linesmen, and the level of officiating for those few weeks in November was noticeably worse compared to what NHL players were used to seeing. As Scouting the Refs writes, "grumblings began to surface about the officiating. Both players and coaches reportedly complained about the quality of the replacements and an increasing number of missed calls. There were even some missed assignments."

While Henderson isn't named in any of those problems specifically, I do find it a little disingenuous that he's claiming to be an NHL referee when he was actually a linesman, and, secondly, that he was closer to being a scab worker during the NHL officials' strike rather than a true NHL official.

So the question needs to be asked if he truly was good enough to make the leap to the NHL after spending time in the WHL. We'll go back to 1987 where a report in the Selkirk Journal newspaper reads,

"Fans and players alike were upset with the officiating of Yogi Henderson in the Steelers exhibition loss to the Stars in Teulon, Sept. 18. Henderson ejected 10 players after only two were involved in a first period fight. Some fans asked for refunds, claiming the players they came to see play were ejected for no reason."

That's not good. It sounds like someone was a little crazy with his power in ejecting ten players when only two were involved in fisticuffs, but the damning statement is the demand of a refund from fans who felt Henderson may have gone a little overboard with his ejections.

But one game is simply that - one game. Are there more examples? That answer is yes as we jump to the Lethbridge Herald on October 27, 1988. That newspaper report reads,

“Bryan Bosch had a near-record night for the Lethbridge Hurricanes Wednesday at the Sportsplex. Bosch sparked the Hurricanes to a 13-6 Western Hockey League victory over the Regina Pats, but his nine-point performance was almost overshadowed by referee Yogi Henderson. Bosch, who scored a hat trick and added six assists in the penalty-filled contest, fell just one point short of the WHL single game points record.

"'I've definitely never had a night like this,' said Bosch, who has accounted for 17 points in the last three games and scored his third consecutive hat trick. 'I haven't been doing anything different lately. I've just been playing my game. Maybe I'm playing with a little more confidence right now and the puck is just bouncing my way.'

"Meanwhile, Henderson called a total of 49 penalties - 25 for 92 minutes for the 'Canes, and 24 for 93 minutes for the Pats. Lethbridge took a 10-minute misconduct, five major penalties, two game misconducts and a 10-minute match penalty by Shane Mazutinec, most of those in a third period penalty parade. Pats were tagged with a pair of 10-minute misconducts and game misconducts as well as a five-minute match penalty and paid the price.

"'It was definitely a strange game. I think Yogi lost control of it. He didn't call a good game at all,' said Bosch, who scored two of the 'Canes eight powerplay markers. 'It seemed like the whole third period was specialty units but I don't mind. That's my strength.'"

Yikes. That's a damning review of his work in a WHL game between Lethbridge and Regina as a referee, so perhaps he was better as a linesman than as a referee. Whatever the case, it seems he either chose to call lines at some point between 1987 and 1993 or he was asked to hand back his orange armband by someone if he went to the NHL during the officials' strike as a linesman.

In the end, I don't doubt that he spent a number of years in the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) as an official. Clearly, he was in the WHL as an official for a couple of years at least as well, so that portion of his resumé is valid. However, the portion about his two-game stint in the NHL should come with a major asterisk as he didn't make The Show based on skill or merit. Rather, he was hired as a scab worker by the NHL in order for the NHL to continue playing its scheduled games while the NHL officials negotiated for better wages and benefits. Does that make him an NHL official? To a degree, yes, but it's not entirely genuine.

Like any politician worth his weight in this election, it seems there are important details missing from what a candidate is claiming in his past.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!