Toe Blake

That sounds more sophisticated than the Hamill Lecter-looking mask he wore that day against the Rangers.

Canadiens coach Toe Blake argued against it.

He was no fan of the mask and considered any goalie who wanted to wear one in a game to be cowardly.

But with no other goalie at his disposal, he had no choice but to let Jacques wear his for the rest of the game.

That same 1955-56 season plays Olmsted at the heart of one of hockey's greatest teams.

Total Blake's Canadians lost only 15 to 70 games and finished 24 points ahead of the second place Detroit before defeating the Red Wings in five games for the Stanley Cup.

Montreal's top line featured Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, and Olmsted.

While Henri Richard, Geoffreyon, and Dickie Moore formed another line.

Think about that.

Your top two lines in one team, all Hall of Famers.

Don't you think like Elmer Lack and Toe Blake when you think Richard? I don't think, I didn't even know that.

In my head, it's like Beliveau's a bit after Richard, even though he started in like the early 50s.

It dominated his winters, but by spring he began to thaw out, and by summer, baseball reigned supreme.

His coach, John Nault, was known as Mr.

Baseball in Victoriaville.

On one occasion, he took John and four others across the US border to Boston's Fenway Park.

One day after practice, a man named Jacques Toupy came up to Jean and told him he was good enough to be playing for the Trois-Rivières Reds, which was one of the Quebec Junior League teams.

The man knew what he was talking about.

He was not only a coach of the Reds, but also a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Jack saw greatness in Jean Bellevaux.

Rashard was unhappy enough about losing ice time that he briefly left the team.

But coach Toe Blake told the rookie to ignore the noise and just play your game.

Lemaire did, and he never went back to the minors.

That's a really tough situation to enter your pro hockey career.

Opposing teams sometimes structured their entire defensive strategy around stopping Hull.

Montreal coach Toe Blake routinely assigned elite defensive forward Claude Provost to shadow him.

Canadiens winger Yvan Cournoyer remembered that whenever Hull was on the ice, Provost was essentially attached to him.

Hull understood exactly what Provost had been ordered to do and, according to Cournoyer, respected him for it rather than turning their matchup into a feud.

All right.

Question: Which legendary hockey figure becomes one of Don's notoriously difficult bosses in the minor leagues? Was it Eddie Shore? Was it Toe Blake? Was it Punch Imlach? Or was it Conn Smythe? Who was the awful boss that Don Cherry had? It was, of course, Eddie Shore, who some may think Shoresy was based on, and you might not...

You might be right.

Anyway, we had a bit of shuffle in the leaderboard.