Toe Blake
| Toe Blake | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hockey Hall of Fame, 1966 | |||
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| Born |
August 21, 1912 Victoria Mines, Ontario, Canada |
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| Died | May 17, 1995 (aged 82) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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| Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) | ||
| Weight | 162 lb (73 kg; 11 st 8 lb) | ||
| Position | Left Wing | ||
| Shot | Left | ||
| Played for |
Montreal Canadiens Montreal Maroons |
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| Playing career | 1934–1948 | ||
Joseph Hector "Toe" Blake, CM (August 21, 1912 – May 17, 1995) was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). He is best known for his three-decade association with the Montreal Canadiens, with whom he won ten Stanley Cups as a player or coach. On January 1, 2017, in a ceremony prior to the Centennial Classic, Blake was part of the first group of players to be named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
Born in what is now the ghost town of Victoria Mines, he was raised playing outdoor hockey in the town of Coniston near the city of Sudbury in Northern Ontario. Blake played junior and senior hockey in the Sudbury area and was part of the 1932 Memorial Cup champions, the Sudbury Cub Wolves. He played for the Hamilton Tigers of the Ontario Hockey Association during the 1934–35 season before he signed with the Montreal Maroons of the National Hockey League on February 22, 1935; he made his NHL debut two days later on February 24, against the Chicago Black Hawks. Blake played eight games with the Maroons in the 1934–35 season, but was held scoreless; he did not play in any of the team's playoff games, but when the Maroons won the Stanley Cup, Blake's name was added to the trophy. Blake then played for the Canadiens until his retirement in 1948. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player in 1938–39; that same year he was also the league scoring champion with 47 points. For the last eight seasons, he was team captain, and led the Canadiens to Stanley Cups in 1944 and 1946. In the latter year, in which he incurred only one minor penalty, he became the first Canadien ever to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship, which only Mats Näslund has replicated since as of 2015 (in 1987–88).
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