Spector on NHL: Tribute to a lost colleague

RALEIGH, N.C. — Don Henderson is a big, tough Calgary–born linesman who has manned the lines in the National Hockey League when his back was so messed up one of the other officials had to tie his skates for him.

But Sunday night, after his first All-Star Game, he was standing in the official’s room inside the RBC Center, a Bud Light in his hand and tears rolling down his face.

The question was a simple one: “What did you feel like when you skated out in his sweater?”

“Kind of emotional … for me,” Henderson said, choking up. “I cry at the best of times.”

Hardly anybody in the arena even noticed, but in Sunday’s NHL All-Star game Henderson wore his own sweater No. 91 for the first and third periods, and the late Stephane Provost’s No. 72 in the second period.

It was very likely the last time the No. 72 will ever be worn by an NHL official, one linesman’s final tribute to a lost colleague, father and friend.

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This is the story of two baby zebras — one from Montreal, the other from Calgary — who met as trainees at an NHL officials camp 17 years ago. Henderson had made it to major junior in the WHL, trying to make it as a player, with the same dream his young twin sons aspire to now. (They had their picture taken with the Sedin twins Sunday).

But the only way either he or Provost was going to make it to the NHL, was with a striped jersey and a whistle.

The two showed up together in 1994, a couple of wide-eyed rookies who looked at a veteran like Ray Scapinello and couldn’t believe they were on the same sheet of ice with him. Today, Henderson has 944 NHL games on his resume.

And Provost?

“It’s really a sad story,” Henderson said of his buddy, whose career stopped abruptly at 695 games during the lockout of 2004-05.

It was Apr. 22, 2005 in Florida. Provost and a buddy picked up their tickets at Will Call at the Marlins-game, left for him by Alfonso Marquez, a Major League Baseball umpire who wears the same No. 72.

Reports said they all went out after the game. Some time before the 3 a.m. accident, Provost shook Marquez’s hand, slapped him on the back and hopped on to his 2003 Harley Davidson for the ride home.

Provost, who was not wearing a helmet, hit the back of a transport trailer on the way home that night. The bike lit afire and landed on Provost. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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“They had started the same year. There was camaraderie,” said Archie Henderson, Don’s brother who is a long-time pro scout. Archie has traveled in from airports with the officials in a cab, and occasionally grabbed dinner with the refs when he and his brother were in the same town.

“They’re a pretty tight group those guys,” Archie said. “In hockey, there’s closeness in the locker room. But there’s a real closeness in that referees locker room.

“Their families are close. There is a real bond there.”

Another long-time friend of Provost’s, a leading referee in the game today, turned down an interview request for this story. Nearly six years later, it’s still too hard for him to go back.

“This would be his All-Star game with me,” Henderson says of Provost. “He got his 15-year ring (given posthumously to Provost’s brother), his playoff ring… We’re trying to do the right thing.”

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Henderson is standing in an All-Star dressing room, post-game. There are the usual pizza boxes, Gatorades and Budweisers that you see in every official’s room after every game. But on this night the four officials have parents, kids, aunts and uncles in town.

The small room is packed with Doreen and Frank Henderson just sitting in a couple of folding chairs off to the side, drinking in the scene. Their son is an NHL All-Star.

Don may not be a player, but there are 42 players in this game. Only four men in the world get the call as officials, and on this day Henderson, Darren Gibbs, Tom Kowal and Kevin Pollock earned their All-Star stripes.

Thanks to one bad night on a bike, Provost never got his chance.

“He’s got all his accolades now. This is the last one,” Henderson said of wearing Provost’s jersey for an All-Star period. “He’s never going to work a Stanley Cup Final.”

Henderson sent the uniform through the two dressing rooms for the players to sign, and it will end up with Provost’s widow Sandra, and two young daughters, Ashley and Reily.

The NHL Officials Association holds an annual golf tournament to raise money, much of which has gone to Provost’s family.

“We’ve really adopted his girls, our association,” Henderson said. “We’ve raised enough money that they’ll never have to pay to go to school.”