Lalonde, "Newsy" (Edouard)
Hockey, Lacrosse
b. Oct. 31, 1887, Cornwall, ONT
d. Nov. 21, 1970, Montreal
Lalonde played in the NHL for only five seasons, but he led the league in scoring twice, finished second once and was fourth another time.
Nicknamed "Newsy" because he worked in a printing plant as a youth, Lalonde didn't begin skating until he was thirteen. An outstanding lacrosse player, he took up hockey at sixteen with his hometown team in 1904.
Two years later, he became a professional with the Canadian Soo team of the International Hockey League. When the Ontario Professional Hockey League was organized in 1907, Lalonde joined that league's Toronto Professionals. He led the OPHA in scoring with 32 goals in 9 games during the 1908-09 season.
Lalonde then went to a new team, the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association, in 1910. After six games, he was loaned to the Renfrew Creamery Kings for the rest of the season.
He returned to the Canadiens for the 1910-11 season, then went to Vancouver, where he was paid $6,500, by far the highest hockey salary of the time. In his one season there, he led the Pacific Coast Hockey Association with 27 goals in 15 games.
Then Lalonde returned to the Canadiens once more, this time for ten seasons. For the first five seasons, they were still in the National Hockey Association. They moved into the National Hockey League when it was organized in 1917. Lalonde was fourth in scoring in the NHL's first season with 23 goals. He led in 1918-19 with 32 points on 22 goals and 10 assists and in 1920-21 with 43 points on 33 goals and 10 assists.
Lalonde scored 17 goals in ten 1919 playoff games. After the Canadiens beat Montreal to win the NHL championship, they faced Seattle of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in the Stanley Cup finals. Five players, including Lalonde, came down with the Spanish flu after the fifth game and the series was then called off. One of the players, Joe Hall, subsequently died.
When Leo Dandurand bought the Canadiens in 1921, it was the beginning of the end for Lalonde in Montreal. He and Dandurand didn't get along and at one point Lalonde left the team for four games.
After the season, Lalonde was traded to the Saskatoon Sheiks for Aurel Joliat. As Saskatoon player-coach, he led the Western Canada Hockey League in scoring in 1922-23, with 34 points in 29 games.
But, at 35, he was nearing the end of the line as a player. He had only 20 points in his second season with Saskatoon (when the team was renamed the Crescents) and 14 points the following season. In 1925-26, he focused on coaching, appearing in just three regular-season games and two playoff games.
The league and team folded after that season and Lalonde became coach of the NHL's New York Americans. He also took the ice for one game with them.
He ended is playing career by appearing in one game with the Quebec Castors in 1927-28. Lalonde coached the Canadiens from 1932 into the 1934-35 season.
Lalonde may have been even better at lacrosse, though he didn't play that sport professionally after 1918. In 1950, he was voted the best lacrosse player of the half-century.