Newsy Lalonde - NHL/WCHL Career

NHL/WCHL Career

Newsy Lalonde played (and scored) in the first-ever NHL game on December 19, 1917, when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators, 7–4. He would score in each of the first six NHL games, earning a share of an NHL record with Cy Denneny and Joe Malone to establish an NHL record that would go unmatched for nearly 90 years.

During the 1919 Stanley Cup playoffs, Lalonde scored a spectacular seventeen goals in ten games. However, on the day of the fifth game of the finals against the Seattle Metropolitans, Lalonde, owner George Kennedy, Joe Hall, Billy Coutu, Jack McDonald and Louis Berlinguette were hospitalized with the flu. Five and a half hours before its start, the game was postponed. However, with his entire team either hospitalized or confined to bed, Kennedy announced he was forfeiting the game—and the Cup—to the Canadiens. However, the Metropolitans felt it would be unsporting to accept the trophy under the circumstances, and the fifth game was never played. Joe Hall did not survive.

Thereafter Lalonde had two fine years, but after the Kennedy estate sold the Canadiens to Leo Dandurand, his clashes with the new ownership affected his play to the point where he left the team for four games, and he was relegated to reserve duty amidst the boos of the fans. Accordingly, Dandurand sold Lalonde to Saskatoon the following year in violation of the waiver regulations then in force. The deal was disputed, and eventually—and grudgingly—the Canadiens accepted the amateur Aurel Joliat in compensation. ( When Lalonde and Joliat met later that season, Lalonde,unhappy that Joliat was fast becoming a fan favorite in Montreal, got his "revenge" by serving Joliat with a vicious crosscheck to the face. )

On a line with future Hall of Famer Bill Cook, Lalonde achieved his final scoring title as playing coach of the Sheiks, although the team had a poor overall record. The next two seasons the team was much improved, but Lalonde himself was finally feeling his age and was no longer an impact player. He scored the final goal of his career on March 2, 1925, against Vancouver. The following season he played three regular season games and two playoff games, the last for the Saskatoon franchise before the Western Hockey League folded.

The following season, 1927, Lalonde was named the head coach of the New York Americans. He played as a substitute for one final game in November 1926 before hanging up his skates for good. After his retirement, he also served as the head coach of the Ottawa Senators between 1929 and 1931, and of the Canadiens between 1932 and 1935.