Hall, a right-handed shot, started out his hockey 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. During the second half of his career he played 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." , assigned as a right winger. 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 a qualifying test 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. The most blatant act of violence happened when he knocked down
Charlie Tobin with his stick. 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.
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 told 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. ==Career statistics==