Joe Malone

Maurice Joseph Malone (February 28, 1890 – May 15, 1969) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre. He played in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and National Hockey League (NHL) for the Quebec Bulldogs, Montreal Canadiens, and Hamilton Tigers from 1910 to 1924. Known for his scoring feats and clean play, Malone led the NHL in goals and points in 1918 and 1920, and the NHA in goals twice, in 1913 and 1917 (in a tie). He won the Stanley Cup with Quebec in 1912 and 1913. He is the only player in the history of the NHL to score seven goals in a single game, accomplishing the feat in 1920. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950.

Personal life
Malone, the second of eleven children, was born in Saint-Colomb-de-Sillery, a town outside of Quebec City, on February 28, 1890. His father, Maurice Joseph Malone, was of Irish descent and also related to the Gignac family, of Quebecois origin. His mother was Marie-Louise Rochon, who was Quebecois herself. Maurice Joseph worked in the lumber industry, as did his father and grandfather. In 1916 he married Mathilda Power. During the First World War Malone worked with the North American Arms Company. After his playing career Malone worked for a telephone company in Montreal. He died of a heart attack on May 15, 1969, in Montreal, Quebec.

1908–1917
Malone played hockey from an early age: he was noted in local newspapers as early as 1904 for his exploits, with one report calling him "a rising star". As a junior he played with the Quebec Crescents and in 1909, at the age of 19, he joined the Quebec Bulldogs of the Eastern Canada Hockey Association, making his senior debut on January 2, 1909. He finished tied for third on the team in scoring with 8 goals in 12 games.

The next season, in 1910, a new league, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed but did not allow Quebec to join. Malone and several other Quebec players instead signed with the Waterloo Colts in the Ontario Professional Hockey League. With Waterloo Malone played eleven games and scored nine goals. The Quebec club was reformed in 1911 and joined the NHA for the 1910–11 season, so Malone returned to the team, where he scored 9 goals in 13 games. He centred linemates such as Eddie Oatman and Jack Marks, he scored 21 goals in 18 games in the 1911–12 season, sixth overall in scoring, as Quebec finished first in the league, and consequently won the Stanley Cup.

Quebec again won the Cup in 1913 as Malone led the league with 43 goals in 20 games, including a career-best nine goals in a Cup match against Sydney. His brother Jeff Malone also played for Quebec in 1913 when they won the Stanley Cup. Malone finished fourth in the NHA during the 1913–14 season, with 24 goals in 17 games. He missed some games in the 1914–15 season due to spraining an ankle during a game in January 1915, which kept him out until mid-February; in the 12 games he played, he had 16 goals. Malone returned to form for 1915–16 when he finished second in goal scoring in the league with 25 goals in 24 games.

In 1916–17, Malone scored 41 goals in 19 games in the NHA, finishing tied for the scoring lead with Frank Nighbor of the Ottawa Senators. Malone was in the scoring lead until the final game of the season when he played Nighbor and the Senators. Ottawa had two players cover Malone the entire game, while Nighbor was able to score 5 goals and finish tied.

1917–1924
When the NHL was founded in 1917, Quebec did not operate a team in its first season, and the team's players were sold to the other teams for $700 each; Malone was claimed by the Montreal Canadiens. Playing on what was one of the most powerful forward lines of all time with Newsy Lalonde and Didier Pitre, Malone shifted to left wing to accommodate Lalonde. Malone scored one of the first goals in NHL history, on the league's opening night of December 19, 1917; he finished the game with five goals. He had two other games with five goals during the season, and finished with 44 goals in 20 games, leading the league. Malone established a league record for goals in a season that lasted until 1945; his goals-per-game average has not been surpassed. Malone scored at least one goal (and a total of 35 goals) in his first 14 NHL games to set the record for the longest goal-scoring streak to begin an NHL career.

Malone missed the first two games of the 1918–19 season owing to commitments to his job with the North American Arms Company. While he did play part of the season with the Canadiens, he was limited to only playing Saturday home games in Montreal as he could not miss time from work. In the eight games he did play he scored seven goals. In the league final series against Ottawa, he scored five goals in five games; a lingering arm injury held him out of the Stanley Cup final against the Seattle Metropolitans, which was cancelled after five games due to the Spanish flu pandemic.

Quebec revived its franchise in 1919 and Malone rejoined the club, once more leading the league in scoring with 39 goals and setting a single-game goal-scoring mark which still stands at seven against Toronto on January 31, 1920. He scored six goals in a second game that season on March 10, 1920, against the Senators. While Malone had 39 goals in 24 games to lead the league in scoring, the team was very weak on the ice, and finished the season with 4 wins and 20 losses, last in the league.

The team was relocated to Hamilton for the 1921 season. Malone did not initially join the team, instead staying in Quebec to attend to his business interests. He joined the team in January 1921, having missed the first four games of the season. He finished fourth in league scoring with 28 goals. He finished fourth in scoring the following season, as well. For 1921–22 he served as a player-coach and manager for the Tigers.

Malone decided to not return to Hamilton for the 1922–23 season. He was traded back to the Canadiens on January 3, 1923, in exchange for Edmond Bouchard. He scored only a single goal that season while generally playing as a substitute. He played ten games without scoring the next season, playing his last game on January 26 against the Toronto St. Patricks.

Playing style
Malone spent the majority of his playing career as a centre, and he had a particular penchant for finding open space on the ice for his goal-scoring. Malone earned his famous nickname, "Phantom Joe", both for his dark eyes and for his ability to find openings offensively and weave his way to the net in an almost invisible fashion. In an era known for its violence and physicality, Malone was regarded more as a finesse player, with another nickname of his being "Gentleman Joe". Contrary to many other players of his era, such as his Quebec teammate Joe Hall (with the nickname "Bad Joe") and his Montreal teammate Newsy Lalonde, Malone also did not have a reputation as a particularly rough player, but rather as one of the cleanest players in the game.

Malone was not considered to be one of the fastest players in the game, but rather a smooth player who knew exactly how to position himself around the opposing goal cage. The December 30, 1919 issue of the Ottawa Journal reproduced a conversation between three hockey fans, where a veteran spectator of 25 years, who had seen all the great players in the game, gave echo to this sentiment and compared Malone's abilities to those of baseball second baseman Eddie Collins, an opinion the newspaper itself agreed with.

Legacy
Malone finished his career with 343 goals and 32 assists over 15 professional seasons. His 179 goals in the NHA were the most in the league's history. The 44 goals he scored in the 1917–18 season were an NHL record until Maurice Richard broke it in 1944–45, while Malone's 49 points in 1919–20 were the most until Howie Morenz had 59 in 1927–28. He is also the only player in NHL history to score six goals in a game more than once.

He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950 and is also a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. In 1998, he was ranked number 39 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. The list was announced 74 years after his last game and 91 years after his professional debut, making him the earliest player on the list.

A statue by artist Frédéric Laforge of Malone with a bulldog, entitled Hommage à Joe Malone, was inaugurated on June 10, 2021, and is located at Place Jean-Béliveau at the ExpoCité in Quebec City. The statue pays homage to Malone's nickname, "Phantom Joe."

Regular season and playoffs

 * Source: Total Hockey

NHL records

 * Most goals in one game (7), January 31, 1920 at Quebec.
 * Most games played with 5 goals or more: 5.
 * Highest goals-per-game average, one season: 2.20 with Montreal, 1917–18 season (44 goals in 20 games).
 * Longest consecutive goal-scoring streak from start of NHL career: 14 games (1917–18).