People remember where they were when Paul Henderson scored in the same way they remember where they were on VE Day, when JFK was shot, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, or on 9/11
Here’s a shot! Henderson made a wild stab for it and fell. Here’s another shot. Right in front. They score! Henderson has scored for Canada!What you need to understand about the Canada-Russia series, Junior, is it was about way more than hockey.
No, winning the summit series was more like winning an axe fight. It transcended sport, was a generational benchmark: People remember where they were when Henderson scored in the same way they remember where they were on VE Day, when JFK was shot, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, or on 9/11. Except the series began with a 7-3 blow-out loss to the visitors in the Montreal Forum, which was kind of like the Pope losing in the Vatican.
Then came the turnaround. Henderson, a Toronto Maple Leaf who hadn’t been expected to play a prominent role, scored the winner in each of the final three games, including that legendary last-minute marker, and the country went nuts. Today’s premier, John Horgan, watched in the same way as a gazillion other Canadian kids that morning: glued to a TV set in the school gym, in his case Saanich’s Reynolds Secondary.
OK, maybe the place of Henderson’s goal has been overstated, its importance exaggerated by a bunch of oldsters who first viewed it through the rose-tinted lenses of their own youth.