Toe Blake CM
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1966
Blake in the 1960s
Born	(1912-08-21)August 21, 1912 Victoria Mines, Ontario, Canada
Died	May 17, 1995(1995-05-17) (aged 82) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight	162 lb (73 kg; 11 st 8 lb)
Position	Left wing
Shot	Left
Played for	Montreal Maroons Montreal Canadiens
Playing career	1934–1951

Joseph Hector "Toe"BlakeCM (August 21, 1912 – May 17, 1995) was a Canadianice hockeyplayer andcoach in theNational Hockey League (NHL). Blake played in the NHL from 1935 to 1948 with theMontreal Maroons andMontreal Canadiens. He led the NHL in scoring in1939, while also winning theHart Trophy for most valuable player, and served ascaptain of the Canadiens from 1940 to his retirement. He won theStanley Cup three times as a player: in1935 with the Maroons, and in1944 and1946 with the Canadiens. While with the Canadiens Blake played on a line withElmer Lach andMaurice Richard which was dubbed thePunch 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.

Blake was one of 13 children to Wilmer and Arzélie Blake (11 survived childhood).^[2] Wilmer (born 1874) was originally fromMassachusetts and had moved to Canada around 1896, and was of English and Irish ancestry.^[3] Arzélie was born inBuckingham, 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 toSudbury, Ontario for work.^[5] Soon after Blake's birth the family moved toConiston, as the mine Wilmer had been working at was slowly closing.^[6]

Blake played junior and senior hockey in the Sudbury area and was part of the 1932Memorial Cup champions, theSudbury Cub Wolves. He played for theHamilton Tigers of theOntario Hockey Association during the 1934–35 season before he signed with theMontreal Maroons of theNational Hockey League on February 22, 1935; he made his NHL debut two days later on February 24, against theChicago Black Hawks.^[7] Blake played eight games with the Maroons in the1934–35 season, but was held scoreless; he did not play in any of the team's playoff games, but when the Maroons won theStanley Cup, Blake's name was added to the trophy. Blake then played for the Canadiens until his retirement in1948. He won theHart Memorial Trophy as the NHL'sMost Valuable Player in1938–39; that same year he was also the leaguescoring champion with 47 points. For the last eight seasons, he was teamcaptain, and led the Canadiens toStanley Cups in1944 and1946. In the latter year, in which he incurred only one minor penalty, he became the first Canadien ever to win theLady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship, which onlyMats Näslund has replicated since as of 2022 (in1987–88).

While playing with the Canadiens, he was part of a trio called the "Punch Line," withElmer Lach at centre andMaurice Richard at right wing. He scored theStanley Cup-clinching goal in the1944 Stanley Cup Finals at 9:12 of the first overtime of game four, helping the Canadiens complete a four-game sweep of theChicago Blackhawks.The following season, the Punch Line became the second set of linemates ever to finish first, second, and third in NHL scoring in one season (Lach had 80 points, Richard 73, and Blake 67). They followed theBoston Bruins'Kraut Line of1939–40, and would be followed by theDetroit Red Wings'Production Line in1949–50.

During a loss to theNew York Rangers on January 11, 1948,^[8][9] Blake collided with Rangers' skaterBill 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 onThe 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 behindBill 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]

After eight years coaching several of the Canadiens' minor-league affiliates, he was named head coach of the Canadiens on June 8, 1955, replacingDick 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 ariot the past spring).

Blake coached the Canadiens for thirteen years, winning theStanley 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 behindScotty Bowman, who won nine Stanley Cups in total (five Cups with the Canadiens, one with thePittsburgh Penguins, and three with theDetroit 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 isCasey Stengel of theNew 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 the1968 Finals, ending 33 consecutive years at ice level with the Canadiens organization.

Blake turned downJacques Plante's request to wear a mask during games for fear that it would impair his vision. However, after a shot from Rangers playerAndy Bathgate broke Plante's nose in a game on November 1, 1959, Blake finally relented.^[10]

Born in what is now theghost town ofVictoria Mines, Blake was raised playing outdoor hockey in the town ofConiston near the city ofSudbury inNorthern Ontario.

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 ofGuy Street andSaint Catherine Street in Montreal, just a few blocks from theMontreal Forum.^[10][16] The tavern closed in 1983.^[16]

Blake suffered fromAlzheimer's disease in his final years.^[17] When respected writerRed 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.

He was the uncle ofMike Blake.

Blake was elected to theHockey Hall of Fame in 1966 in the player category, and was made a Member of theOrder of Canada in 1982.^[9] A park located next to hisMontreal West home is named in his honour.

In 2011, the community centre in Blake's hometown ofConiston, Ontario, was renamed the "Toe Blake Memorial Arena" in his honour.^[18]

• Source:Total Hockey^[19]

• Stanley Cup champion —1935 (with Montreal Maroons as a player)
• Stanley Cup champion —1944,1946 (with Montreal Canadiens as a player)
• Stanley Cup champion —1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1965,1966,1968 (head coach of Montreal Canadiens)
• Hart Trophy —1939
• Scoring Leader — 1939
• Lady Byng Trophy —1946
• NHL first team All-Star — 1939,1940,1945
• NHL second team All-Star — 1946
• In January, 2017, Blake was part of the first group of players to be named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.^[12]

• List of members of the Hockey Hall of Fame

• Biographical information and career statistics fromNHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database

• 1912 births
• 1995 deaths
• Buffalo Bisons (AHL) players
• Canadian ice hockey coaches
• Canadian ice hockey left wingers
• Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Canada
• Neurological disease deaths in Quebec
• Hart Memorial Trophy winners
• Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
• Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winners
• Montreal Canadiens coaches
• Montreal Canadiens players
• Montreal Maroons players
• 20th-century Canadian sportsmen
• Members of the Order of Canada
• National Hockey League scoring leaders (prior to 1947–48)
• Ontario Hockey Association Senior A League (1890–1979) players
• Providence Reds players
• Ice hockey people from Greater Sudbury
• Stanley Cup champions
• Stanley Cup championship–winning head coaches

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