Toe Blake
Winning Is Everything
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The first ever biography of Toe Blake — Hockey Hall of Famer and eleven-time Stanley Cup winner
“Holy Dirty Dora!” Hector “Toe” Blake would bark while pacing behind the Montreal Canadiens bench, hands thrust into his pockets, jawing at chewing gum before intentionally banging his forehead into the glass that separates players and fans. No lead was safe or sufficient for the lifelong hockey man at the helm of the greatest dynasty in NHL history. As a player, Toe won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Maroons before captaining a stumbling Canadiens organization to glory and a pair of Cups. As the Habs coach, Toe cemented the team’s status as lords of the league with eight more.
Born into a family of 11, Blake emerged from the poverty of the Depression and a youth spent working the mines of Sudbury’s Nickel Belt to find junior hockey success and an unlikely shot at the NHL. While a fiery temper and penchant for stick-swinging nearly railroaded Toe’s promise, the Canadiens recognized his talent and leadership, and he went on to spend more than 50 years with the organization.
History remembers Toe being hoisted onto the shoulders of his beloved players, waving his signature fedora and sipping from the Cup, but behind the success was a man driven by fear and an obsessive desire for victory. Despite personal tragedy, Toe always put winning first, and as a result, there are few coaches in any sport who have enjoyed Blake’s success and even fewer who endured the toll that came with it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sportswriter Logothetis delivers a solid, insightful biography of Hector "Toe" Blake (1912 1995), whose legendary three-decade association with the Montreal Canadiens included winning the Stanley Cup 10 times as either a player or coach. Starting with Blake's Depression-era youth in Coniston, Ontario, where he learned to play hockey with "pucks cut from birch trees" before being signed by the Canadiens in 1936, and then moving through Blake's playing and coaching career, Logothetis provides an excellent look at how both the personal and professional aspects of hockey have changed over the years. He shows how Blake learned to control his "aggressive behavior" and "loud and foul-mouthed on-ice presence," allowing him to focus on his game and become an effective part of the Canadiens in the 1930s and '40s, when he joined linemen Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard in what came to be known as the the Punch Line, one of the best offensive units of the era. Logothetis also shows how Blake changed from "an old-school coach" to a more modern type who pushed his players "to play to their strengths but did not point the finger when mistakes were made." This look at an important figure in the world of professional hockey will thrill fans of all allegiances.
