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Joe Hall (ice hockey)

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Joe Hall
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1961
Hall in 1917 with the Montreal Canadiens
Born (1881-05-03)May 3, 1881
Milwich, England, United Kingdom
Died April 5, 1919(1919-04-05) (aged 37)
Seattle, Washington, United States
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight 175 lb (79 kg; 12 st 7 lb)
Position Defence
Shot Right
Played for Montreal Canadiens
Quebec Bulldogs
Montreal Shamrocks
Montreal Wanderers
Winnipeg Maple Leafs
Montreal Hockey Club
Kenora Thistles
Brandon Wheat Cities
Playing career 1902–1919

Joseph Henry "Bad Joe" Hall (May 3, 1881 – April 5, 1919) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Hall played senior and professional hockey from 1902 to 1919, when he died as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic.[1] He won the Stanley Cup twice with the Quebec Bulldogs and once with the Kenora Thistles.

Playing career

Hall was born in Milwich in Staffordshire, England and grew up in Brandon, Manitoba where his family had moved in 1884.

Nicknamed "Bad Joe" for his aggressiveness on the ice,[1] he played in the Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) with the Brandon Wheat Cities, Winnipeg Rowing Club and Kenora Thistles between 1902–1907, and in the first fully professional league, the International Professional Hockey League (IHL), where he was a teammate of Cyclone Taylor on the Portage Lakes HC during the 1905–06 season. Between 1907–1909 he played for the Montreal Shamrocks, Montreal HC and Montreal Wanderers in the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), after having been expelled from the MHA in December 1907 for rough play.[2]

Between 1910–1917 Hall played in the National Hockey Association (NHA) as a member of the Quebec Bulldogs. On the Bulldogs he formed a successful defence pairing with Harry Mummery.[3] He played for the Montreal Canadiens in their first two seasons in the National Hockey League from 1917–1919, after having been claimed from Quebec in the Dispersal Draft in November 1917.

Hall won the Stanley Cup with the Kenora Thistles in 1907, as a spare player, for which he received a loving cup which is on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He won the Stanley Cup with the Quebec Bulldogs in consecutive years in 1912 and 1913.[4][5] He also challenged for the Stanley Cup in 1904 with the Winnipeg Rowing Club, losing over three games to the Ottawa Hockey Club.[6]

1919 Stanley Cup Finals

In 1919, Hall was part of the Montreal Canadiens team that made it to the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals. The Finals were interrupted, with the two clubs having won two games each, and eventually cancelled due to an outbreak of Spanish flu. The flu was contracted by several players on both the Canadiens and their opponents, the Seattle Metropolitans.[1] Hall eventually succumbed to pneumonia, related to his influenza, in a hospital in Seattle, Washington, just four days after the series was abandoned.[7]

Hall was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.[1]

Playing style

Joe Hall, a right-handed shot, started out his playing career as a forward, playing predominantly as a right winger. During the 1905–06 season with the Portage Lakes Hockey Club he scored 33 goals in 20 games in the International Hockey League from the right wing position. At the second half of his career he would play as a defenceman. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from December 20, 1931 by Harold C. Burr, interviewing former player Lester Patrick, described Hall as a "fast hard-riding forward in the old days of seven-man hockey" and as a "scoring defense man, too, and a hard blocker." The article described further how Hall was "built like a tomcat, with long arms and legs."[8]

Hall in 1905–06 with the Portage Lakes Hockey Club, assigned as a right winger.

"The 'Pegs were going down the ice and Hall had just jumped into the game when he and Tobin came together. Tobin was knocked down and as Hall circled past him he swung his stick around with the result that it crashed into Tobin's head with a sickening sound and the 'Peg player was stretched on the ice, afterwards being carried off."

Winnipeg Tribune describing Hall's attack on Charlie Tobin on December 19, 1907.[9]

Hall had a reputation as one of the roughest and dirtiest players of his era, which earned him the moniker "Bad Joe", and he was involved in several instances of violence where he was reprimanded for attacking either opposing players or officials. On December 19, 1907, at the onset of the 1907–08 season, while playing for the Winnipeg Maple Leafs in an exhibition game against the Winnipeg Hockey Club, Hall was involved in a contest which was dubbed a "disgraceful exhibition" by the Winnipeg Tribune, and the newspaper singled out Hall as the chief offender regarding violent displays. The game ended when the Winnipeg Hockey Club refused to continue playing, thus defaulting the game.[10] The most blatant act of violence happened when he knocked down Charlie Tobin with his stick.[9] Hall was subsequently expelled from the MHA along with Maple Leafs teammate Harry Smith.[2]

During the inaugural NHA season in 1910, while playing for the Montreal Shamrocks in a game against the Cobalt Silver Kings, Hall attacked referee (and former Montreal Wanderers player) Rod Kennedy which prompted the NHA to expel him from the league, although he was later reinstated. Three years later, during the 1912–13 NHA season, he was again involved in a violent situation with an official as he kicked referee Tom Melville on the shins and later swung his stick against him.[11]

"His philosophy was a little hard to understand, but it seemed he respected anyone who kept coming in his side, and didn't start avoiding him."

Cy Denneny on Joe Hall.[3]

During the inaugural NHL season in 1917–18, while a member of the Montreal Canadiens, Hall was involved in a violent tussle with Alf Skinner, forward of the Toronto Arenas, during a game on January 28, 1918. Both players were arrested for assault and appeared in a Toronto court together on January 29 where both were released after being handed a suspended sentence.[12]

Cy Denneny, a longtime left winger with the Ottawa Senators who played directly against (right defenceman) Hall in the NHA and NHL, claimed in an interview with Bill Westwick of the Ottawa Journal in December 1945 that Hall, despite his reputation as a dirty player, "was a friendly fellow also", off the ice. Denneny claimed that Hall had said to him that he did not like opposing players who tried to avoid him by shifting sides, but that he had never been dirty towards Denneny because he came in on Hall's side minding his own business.[3]

Career statistics

1910 postcard of Hall with the Quebec Bulldogs.
    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1901–02 Brandon HC MNWHA 10 11 0 11 8
1902–03 Brandon HC MNWHA 6 9 0 9
1903–04 Winnipeg Rowing Club MHA 6 6 0 6
1903–04 Winnipeg Rowing Club St-Cup 3 1 0 1
1904–05 Brandon HC MPHL 8 11 0 11
1905–06 Portage Lakes HC IHL 20 33 0 33 98
1906–07 Brandon HC MPHL 10 15 1 16 32 2 5 0 5 5
1906–07* Kenora Thistles St-Cup
1907–08 Winnipeg Maple Leafs Exh. 3 4 4
1907–08 Montreal HC ECAHA 4 5 0 5 11
1907–08 Montreal Shamrocks ECAHA 4 4 0 4 6
1908–09 Edmonton HC APHL 1 8 0 8 6
1908–09 Montreal Wanderers ECHA 5 10 0 10 18
1908–09 Winnipeg Maple Leafs MPHL 2 2 1 3 0 2 2 1 3 9
1909–10 Montreal Shamrocks NHA 10 8 0 8 47
1909–10 Montreal Shamrocks CHA 1 7 0 7 6
1910–11 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 10 0 0 0 20
1911–12 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 18 15 0 15 30
1911–12* Quebec Bulldogs St-Cup 2 2 0 2 2
1912–13 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 17 8 0 8 78
1912–13* Quebec Bulldogs St-Cup 2 3 0 3 0
1913–14 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 19 13 4 17 61
1914–15 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 20 3 2 5 52
1915–16 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 23 1 2 3 89
1916–17 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 19 6 5 11 95
1917–18 Montreal Canadiens NHL 21 8 7 15 100 2 0 1 1 12
1918–19 Montreal Canadiens NHL 17 7 1 8 89 5 0 0 0 26
1918–19 Montreal Canadiens St-Cup 5 0 0 0 6
NHA totals 137 52 17 69 489
NHL totals 38 15 8 23 189 7 0 1 1 38
St-Cup totals 12 6 0 6

* Stanley Cup Champion.

Awards and achievements

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Weinreb, Michael (18 March 2020). "When the Stanley Cup Final Was Canceled Because of a Pandemic". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Maple Leaf club excluded – Harry Smith and Joe Hall expelled from the league" Montreal Gazette. Dec. 23, 1907 (pg. 12). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  3. ^ a b c "The Sport Realm" – "Hall wanted to play here" Westwick, Bill. Ottawa Journal. Dec. 11, 1945 (pg. 16). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  4. ^ Stanley Cup Annual Record 1912 NHL (nhl.com). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  5. ^ Stanley Cup Annual Record 1913 NHL (nhl.com). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  6. ^ "A struggle of giants" Winnipeg Tribune. Jan. 5, 1904 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  7. ^ Dator, James (31 July 2019). "The story of the Stanley Cup that no one won". sbnation.com. Vox Media. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  8. ^ "'Bad Joe' Hall Sent Patrick and Gerard To Hockey Cleaners" Burr, Harold C.. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 20, 1931. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  9. ^ a b "Disgraceful exhibition – (Continued from Page 6.)" – "End of game" Winnipeg Tribune. Dec. 20, 1907 (pg. 11). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  10. ^ "Disgraceful exhibition" Winnipeg Tribune. Dec. 20, 1907 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  11. ^ "Joe Hall kicked Tom Melville on shins" Ottawa Citizen. Jan. 14, 1913 (pg. 8). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  12. ^ ""Bad Joe" Hall and Alfie Skinner got off on suspended sentence for fracas in Toronto match" Ottawa Citizen. Jan. 30, 1918 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2020-10-21.