Joseph Hector "Toe" BlakeCM (August 21, 1912 – May 17, 1995) was a Canadian ice hockeyplayer and coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). Blake played in the NHL from 1935 to 1948 with the Montreal Maroons and Montreal Canadiens. He led the NHL in scoring in 1939, while also winning the Hart Trophy for most valuable player, and served as captain of the Canadiens from 1940 to his retirement. He won the Stanley Cup three times as a player: in 1935 with the Maroons, and in 1944 and 1946 with the Canadiens. While with the Canadiens Blake played on a line with Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard which was dubbed the Punch line, as all three were highly-skilled players. In 2017 Blake was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. He was also known as "The Old Lamplighter"[1] due to his skill for putting the puck in the net.
Blake retired as a player in 1951, and soon after turned to coaching. After several years in lower leagues he was named the Canadiens' coach in 1955, and would remain in that role until his retirement in 1968. As coach of the Canadiens he won the Stanley Cup a further eight times, and helped Montreal become one of the most dominant teams in NHL history.
Early life
Blake was one of 13 children to Wilmer and Arzélie Blake (11 survived childhood).[2] Wilmer (born 1874) was originally from Massachusetts and had moved to Canada around 1896, and was of English and Irish ancestry.[3] Arzélie was born in Buckingham, Quebec in 1877; her family, the Filions, had arrived in Quebec in the 17th century.[4] Wilmer and Arzélie married in 1898, and shortly after moved to Sudbury, Ontario for work.[5] Soon after Blake's birth the family moved to Coniston, as the mine Wilmer had been working at was slowly closing.[6]
Playing career
The Punch line: Maurice Richard (bottom left), Elmer Lach (centre), and Toe Blake (bottom right)
During a loss to the New York Rangers on January 11, 1948,[8][9] Blake collided with Rangers' skater Bill Juzda, awkwardly hit the boards and suffered a double fracture of his ankle, ending his NHL career.[10][9] In 1998, he was ranked number 66 on The Hockey News’ list of the NHL's 100 greatest players of all time to date.[11] At the time of his retirement from the NHL Blake was second all-time in career scoring with 527 points, 21 points behind Bill Cowley for the all-time record. He had the all-time record for career points in the playoffs with 62 points in 58 games.[12]
Coaching career
After eight years coaching several of the Canadiens' minor-league affiliates, he was named head coach of the Canadiens on June 8, 1955, replacing Dick Irvin.[13] Blake was fluently bilingual in English and French, and Canadiens management also felt that Richard's former linemate was better suited to control the star's explosive temper (which had led to a riot the past spring).
Blake coached the Canadiens for thirteen years, winning the Stanley Cup eight times — the most titles for any coach in the team's history, the most with one team,[14] and second-most league-wide behind Scotty Bowman, who won nine Stanley Cups in total (five Cups with the Canadiens, one with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and three with the Detroit Red Wings.)[15] His 500 regular-season wins are still the most in Canadiens history.[14] Notably, he won championships in each of his first five seasons as a head coach, this streak being an NHL record that stands to this day. The only other person to have performed a similar feat in his first five seasons as a coach or manager of any particular team in North American professional sports is Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees, although unlike Blake's case the Yankees were not the first team Stengel managed.
Blake retired after the Habs clinched the Cup in game four of the 1968 Finals, ending 33 consecutive years at ice level with the Canadiens organization.
Blake turned down Jacques Plante's request to wear a mask during games for fear that it would impair his vision. However, after a shot from Rangers player Andy Bathgate broke Plante's nose in a game on November 1, 1959, Blake finally relented.[10]
His nickname came from a childhood experience: his younger sister had difficulty pronouncing his name, rendering it as something like "Hec-toe". Thus, the nickname "Toe" arose, and ultimately replaced the nickname he had been given as a scorer, the Old Lamplighter, because he often activated the light behind the goal.[10]
After retiring from the Canadiens, Blake and his family resided permanently in Montreal. In 1952, he opened Toe Blake's Tavern, at the corner of Guy Street and Saint Catherine Street in Montreal, just a few blocks from the Montreal Forum.[10][16] The tavern closed in 1983.[16]
Blake suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years.[17] When respected writer Red Fisher visited him in the nursing home in 1989, Blake could not recognize his old friend. Blake died on May 17, 1995,[17] at the age of 82.
Blake was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966 in the player category, and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1982.[9] A park located next to his Montreal West home is named in his honour.
In 2011, the community centre in Blake's hometown of Coniston, Ontario, was renamed the "Toe Blake Memorial Arena" in his honour.[18]
^ ab"Faubourg Building". Archived from the original on February 10, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Christie, James (May 18, 1995), "Canadiens taskmaster won on skates and in a fedora", The Globe and Mail, Toronto
Coleman, Charles L. (1969), The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol 2: 1927 – 1946 Inc., Sherbrooke, Quebec: Progressive Publications Incorporated
Diamond, Dan, ed. (2002), Total Hockey: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League, Second Edition, New York: Total Sports Publishing, ISBN1-892129-85-X
Dryden, Steve, ed. (1997), The Top 100 NHL Players of All Time, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN0-7710-4176-4
