The Coach’s Toe Blake

The Coach’s, Joseph Hector “Toe” Blake (August 21, 1912-May, 1995) was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach in the NHL. He is remembered as the long-tenured coach and former player for the storied Montreal Canadians, with whom he won 10 Stanley Cups, two as a player (1944,1946). And eight as a coach, not including one cup win as a player for the Montreal Maroons in 1935. Eleven Stanley Cups for an awe-inspiring NHL career.

Toe had early success before he became a professional in the NHL. Toe won the Memorial Cup in 1932 while playing for the Sudbury Wolves. Blake would later play for the Hamilton Tigers of the Ontario Hockey League during the 1934-1935 season just before he inked a deal to play for the Montreal Maroons of the National Hockey League on February 22, 1935; he played his first NHL game two days later on February 24, 1935, against the Chicago Black Hawks. Blake didn’t get in many games with the Maroons, only seeing action in eight games that season; neither did he dress for any playoff games, but the Maroons saw to it that Blake’s name was engraved on the Stanley Cup as well. Blake then played the remainder of his career for the Montreal Canadians until 1948, when he retired.

Achievements

Winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable player for the 1938-1939 season; he also finished atop the league scoring with 47 points during that same campaign to win the scoring title. He captained the Canadians for eight seasons and led them to two Stanley Cup Championships in 1944, 1946. Incredibly in 1946, Toe only incurred one minor penalty, enabling him to become the first-ever Canadian to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship, which only Mats Naslund would later accomplish (1987-1988). Blake played on the famous “Punch Line,” with Elmer Lach at the center and the legendary Maurice Richard on the right-wing. A high point in Toe’s career was the night he scored the overtime winner clinching the 1944 Stanley Cup at 9:12 of the first overtime, in a four-game sweep of the Chicago Black Hawks. The Punch Line became only the second line ever to finish 1, 2, 3 in scoring. The first was the Boston Bruins’ Kraut Line of 1939-1940 Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart, and Bobby Bauer; the third trio to accomplish this feat was the Detroit Red Wings of 1949-1950 consisting of Gordie Howe, Sid Abel, Ted Lindsay. Blake would go on to gather many other accolades during his playing career. NHL First Team All-Star in 1939, 1940, 1945. NHL Second Team All-Star in 1946. As a coach, Blake won the Stanley Cup eight times, five in a row from 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, and three more in 1965, 1966,1968.

On January 11, 1948, Toe’s playing came to an abrupt end when he collided with Bill Juzda of the New York Rangers. The resulting contact left Blake with a double fracture of his ankle. After eight years of coaching many of the Canadians minor league affiliates, he was named head coach of the Montreal Canadians, replacing Dick Irvin.

As head coach of the Montreal Canadians, Blake guided the club to eight cups in thirteen years, the most by any Canadian coach in team history and second only to Scotty Bowman in overall league history. Toes 500 wins as the head coach put him as number one on the list for most wins by a head coach in team history.

Toe was the coach who denied Jacques Plante’s request to wear a mask during games fearing it would obstruct his vision. On November 1, 1959, a shot from New York Rangers forward Andy Bathgate broke Plante’s nose that blake finally conceded.

In 1998, Toe Blake was ranked number 66 on The Hockey News’ list of the NHL’s 100 greatest players of all time. In 1966 Blake was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the player category and was later made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1982. In 2017 Blake was named one of the ‘100 Greatest NHL Players’ in history.

In 2011, the community center in Blake’s hometown of Coniston, Ontario, was renamed the ‘Toe Blake Memorial Arena’ in his honor.

The name Toe originated from Blake’s younger sister’s difficulty in pronouncing his name. As a child, she would say, “Hec-toe.” Eventually, the nickname stuck and was shortened to “Toe.”

Joseph Hector “Toe” Blake, died of Alzheimer’s disease on May 17, 1995, at the age of 82

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