Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde (October 31, 1887 - November 21, 1970) was a professional ice hockey player in the NHL and a professional lacrosse player.

He was born in Cornwall, Ontario. Before playing professional ice hockey, he worked in a newspaper plant, where he acquired the "Newsy" moniker.

Hockey career

In 1905, he started his career with the Cornwall Robbers. The next year, he joined the senior Woodstock club. In 1908, Lalonde signed with the Toronto Arenas in the Ontario Professional Hockey League. Two years later, he joined the Montreal Canadiens for their first season. At the end of the 1911 season, Montreal traded him to the Vancouver Millionaires, in exchange for Ernest Dubeau. In 1912, Vancouver traded him to Montreal for Didier Pitre. In 1915, Lalonde held out in contract negotiations, only playing six games.

Newsy Lalonde played in the first-ever NHL game on December 19th, 1917, when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators, 7-4.

During the 1919 Stanley Cup playoffs, Lalonde scored 17 goals in 10 games. However, the series was cancelled after five games, due to the Stanley Cup flu epidemic. The final game was never played, because Joe Hall, Manager Kennedy, Billy Coutu, Jack McDonald and Lalonde were hospitalized with influenza. Joe Hall died, leading the NHL to call off the series.

A leading scorer for the Canadiens in six years, he served as captain from 1915 to 1921. He was a member of the first Montreal Canadiens team to win the Stanley Cup in 1916. He was scoring champion five times in the National Hockey Association, Pacific Coast Hockey Association and National Hockey League. From 1910 to 1954, he held the record for the most goals scored by a professional hockey player -- a record of 441 goals later broken by Maurice Richard.

Lacrosse career

In the summers, Lalonde played lacrosse, earning more than he did as a hockey player. Around 1910 he made up to $5,000 per season playing lacrosse while as late as 1920 he couldn't get more than $2,000 a year playing hockey. His salary in 1910-11 for the Montreal Canadiens was $1,300 -- considered high for the time.

In 1950, he was named athlete of the half century in lacrosse. He was also elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame of Canada. He had lit the torch when the Sports Hall of Fame opened in Toronto in August 1955.

External links

• Career statistics (http://web.uvic.ca/~lalonde/history/newsy-stats.html)
• Biography (http://web.uvic.ca/~lalonde/history/newsy.html)