As part of the NHL Centennial Celebration, renowned Canadian artist Tony Harris will paint original portraits of each of the 100 Greatest NHL Players presented by Molson Canadian as chosen by a Blue Ribbon panel. NHL.com will reveal two portraits each Monday in 2017.
This week, the portraits of forwards Toe Blake and Pavel Bure are unveiled in the 27th installment.
Toe Blake was one-third of one of the most famous trios in NHL history. He played left wing on the famed "Punch Line" of the Montreal Canadiens, with Elmer Lach in the middle and Maurice Richard on right wing. They helped revive the Canadiens after one of the few downturns in franchise history and keyed Montreal's Stanley Cup championship teams in 1944 and 1946.
Some people felt Blake was the embodiment of old-time hockey; he once tried to take on the entire Detroit Red Wings team. But Blake also served as Montreal's captain from 1940-48, was skilled enough to lead the NHL in scoring in 1938-39, and was named to the NHL First All-Star Team three times. Blake's playing career came to a premature end on Jan. 11, 1948, when a collision with Bill Juzda of the New York Rangers resulted in a badly broken leg and forced him to retire at 35. Seven years later, he returned to the Canadiens as coach and guided them to eight championships in 13 seasons.
In his NHL100 profile of Blake, author Stu Hackel wrote that the player nicknamed The Old Lamplighter was the one the Canadiens rebuilt around after missing the playoffs in 1939-40:
"When coach Dick Irvin moved from [the] Toronto [Maple Leafs] to Montreal in the summer of 1940, he saw only one bona fide NHL player on the Canadiens roster: Blake. He made Toe captain and started to rebuild around him.
"Lach arrived that year, and the promising Richard came in 1942. A series of injuries to Richard caused concern that he might be too brittle for the NHL. After he started 1943-44 skating with Blake and Lach, another injury soon sidelined him. He returned to the lineup playing with others. But during a schedule break around Christmas, Irvin traveled to Saskatchewan to visit his family, leaving Blake to run practices. Foreshadowing his future as a coach, Blake put Richard and Lach back on a line with him, and Irvin kept them together when he rejoined the team for the Dec. 30 game against the Red Wings. That night, Richard -- who had four points on the season -- got three goals and two assists in an 8-3 win. The 'Punch Line' was born, and hockey was never the same.
"'That's when my career really got going,'" Richard told famed broadcaster Dick Irvin, the coach's son, for his book "The Habs: An Oral History of the Montreal Canadiens 1940-80." "Richard spoke no English at first and Lach spoke no French. Blake handled the translating and much more. Lach told the author Irvin that Blake 'was good for me and Rocket. We called him "The Old Man." He was in his 30s. One thing about Toe was the way he practiced. Boy, how he would work. He always said, "The way you practice is the way you played." He never fooled around in practice. That's what made us successful.'
"Richard had 30 goals in the season's last 30 games, becoming the most explosive performer the game had seen, aided by his linemates. Each had a role. Although strong shooters themselves, Blake and Lach gladly hunted and fought for pucks to feed Richard, who was nearly unstoppable inside the blue line. All three understood where to be in certain situations and they could move the puck to each other without looking. 'I knew by feel,' Lach told the author Irvin. 'It was very clear in my mind.'
"Richard was overjoyed to skate with the Canadiens star he had admired as a teenager. 'My hero was Toe Blake,' he told author Roger Kahn."
