I consider myself a fast casual hockey fan. I follow the Avalanche and Kings, I saw Gretzky play, I know who Ken Dryden, Bobby Orr, and Maurice Richard are.

But I have never in my life heard of Toe Blake. Which is crazy, since the guy got into the hockey hall of fame for his career as a player (winning an MVP and two Stanley Cups) and then won *eight* more cups as the coach of the Canadiens. He won 5 cups in a row! And I've never heard of him!

Part of that is this is the first biography of the man, and it captures his working class, tough sensibility well. But interestingly, Blake's success as a coach seems to be down to a combination of not only his hard headed, taciturn, do the work attitude, but also his ability to understand and empathize with his players and control the psychology of the locker room.

He was a very private person, which perhaps explains why there isn't more lore about him outside of Montreal. The privacy and taciturnity make it hard to write a deep biography of the man, but this was a good effort. An interesting look into Hockey history.