Ex-NHL referee reflects on life in ice hockey

Jim Breidenbach’s odyssey from New York Rangers fan to the man with the best seat in Madison Square Garden for 14 years began with a tie clip.

An architectural draftsman at Gibbs & Cox naval design firm in the late 1980s, Breidenbach, already a Rangers season-ticket holder for 23 years, used to wear a Rangers tie clip to work everyday. From that came an introduction to co-worker John Amirante, who sung the national anthem at the Garden for many years. Amirante put Breidenbach in touch with Arthur Reichert, MSG’s then-NHL off-ice supervisor, who gave Breidenbach a tryout as an off-ice official in 1990.

“That tryout last 14 years,” Breidenbach said last week in his Riverdale apartment, which is a treasure trove of hockey memorabilia.

Breidenbach’s gig at the Garden got him audiences with 1980 Miracle on Ice Olympic coach Herb Brooks and even Donald Trump, who told him he needed plenty of smarts to work as a statistician. (Breidenbach also served as a scoreboard operator, penalty box attendant and goal judge in his time with the Rangers.) Brooks told Breidenbach he shared in the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team’s “golden glory” because he had tried out for the team as a goalie, making it through the first cut.

Breidenbach also got to drink from the Stanley Cup in 1994 when the Rangers won their only championship since 1940.

“I’m blessed that everything went the way that it did,” said Breidenbach, 67, a DeWitt Clinton graduate who has lived in Riverdale the last 55 years.

Watching the NHL Center Ice cable package from his apartment in October, Breidenbach flipped to a game being played in Canada and saw a Molson beer ad on the boards. On a whim, he wrote a letter to the company detailing his hockey life and to his surprise, they wrote back honouring his time in the game and bestowing gifts upon him.

“We ... wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your touching words and tremendous amount of gratitude that you express,” wrote Molson human resources manager Ravi Dhaliwal. “What an amazing and successful career you’ve had! Your passion for hockey is also very evident!”

Enclosed with the letter was an authentic Team Canada hockey jersey from this year’s Olympic gold medalists in Sochi, Russia, with Breidenbach’s name on the back and a Team Canada fleece jacket. Breidenbach proudly wore the jersey in his apartment on Dec. 5.

“I wanted someone with some importance — a big name in hockey — who had this love for the game the way I did, to see what I did in hockey,” Breidenbach said. “Why not let people in Canada know what I’ve done? It’s their game. Being honoured by them is such an incredible thrill.”

The package from Molson was also a nice pick-me-up for Breidenbach, who is scheduled for surgery in March to remove a cancer spot on his nose. Breidenbach, a navy veteran, was recently diagnosed with skin cancer at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in Kingsbridge. He believes the cancer came from sun exposure during his time jogging, which he took up a few years ago once his knees became unable to withstand playing hockey.

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” Breidenbach said of the procedure. “It’s a common thing.”

What is uncommon, Breidenbach said, is the generosity from the people at Molson, who are otherwise complete strangers from a different country across the continent.

“I always wanted people in Canada to know what I had done to contribute to the game,” he said. “In America, it’s not as big a sport. But there, it’s a religion. To receive something from them, it floored me.”