Bonuses and Bubbles

The knack of piling on pressure at the proper moment makes a man like Hector ("Toe") Blake hard to beat--at hockey, poker, or a business deal. The Montreal Canadiens' veteran left-winger (and poker player) is old enough (31) by peacetime hockey standards to be heading for the minors, but he still has plenty of the know-how that brought him the point-making crown back in 1938-39.

Last fall he talked the Canadiens into promising him a bonus if the club led the National Hockey League at Christmas, another bonus if he was the league's leading scorer at that time. Then he put the deal on ice. With an occasional timely spurt of the old speed, and an aggressive instinct for team play, he fed a stream of passes to linemates Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard, by Christmas had piled up 19 assists and 15 goals. That gave him a one-point, bonus-earning edge over veteran Bill Cowley, the slick stick handler and playmaking ace of the Boston Bruins.

Blake bagged his other bonus by another hairbreadth: the Canadiens squeezed through the holiday with a bare one-point, league-leading edge over the Detroit Red Wings. The Detroiters had been all but unbeatable in recent weeks, and looked like likely first-placers when they met the Canadiens in a midseason "crucial game" last week. Blake, Richard and Lach promptly busted that bubble; their eight goals and eight assists, with Right-Winger Richard going on a five-goal spree, added up to a crushing 9-to-1 victory.

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