Newsy Lalonde Edouard " Newsy " Lalonde ( October 31 , 1887 , Cornwall , Ontario – November 21 , 1970 ) was a Canadian professional forward in the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . He played for the Montreal Canadiens - - considered to be the original " Flying Frenchman " - - in the National Hockey Association and the NHL . He also played for the WCHL ' s Saskatoon Sheiks . Before playing professional ice hockey , he worked in a newspaper plant , where he acquired the " Newsy " moniker . Early hockey career . In the 1904 , Lalonde started his career with the Cornwall Hockey Club of the Federal Amateur Hockey League ( FAHL ) . In 1905 , he played for the Woodstock club of the Ontario Hockey Association Senior A League . Lalonde made the trek to Sault Ste . Marie , Ontario in 1906 to play in the International Professional Hockey League , hockey ' s first known professional league . In his one season in the Sault , he was named to the IHL Second All - Star Team . In 1907 , Lalonde signed with the Toronto Professionals of the Ontario Professional Hockey League , and with linemates Bruce Ridpath and Wally Mercer led the " Torontos " to the league championship , losing the Stanley Cup in a tight match with the Montreal Wanderers in which Lalonde scored twice . 1910 saw the foundation of the National Hockey Association ( NHA ) , precursor to the NHL , and Lalonde joined the Montreal Canadiens for their first season and indeed Lalonde scored the first - ever goal for the Montreal Canadiens . Halfway through the season , the Habs traded him to the Renfrew Creamery Kings , with whom Newsy led the league in scoring . He rejoined the Canadiens for the 1911 season - - professional hockey was only then developing any sense of teams retaining the rights to their players - - during which he had several stick battles and provoked the ire of opposing fans . With the formation of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association ( PCHA ) in 1912 , Lalonde jumped to the Vancouver Millionaires , and promptly led the league in scoring its inaugural year . Vancouver traded him back to Montreal the following season for Didier Pitre . In 1915 , Lalonde held out in contract negotiations , only playing six games , but aside from that , he remained with the Canadiens for the next ten years , winning the NHA scoring title again in 1916 and captaining the Canadiens to his only Stanley Cup victory . NHL / WCHL career . Newsy Lalonde played ( and scored ) in the first - ever NHL game on December 19th , 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 . ( The record was tied by Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 1 , 2006 . ) During the 1919 Stanley Cup playoffs , Lalonde scored a spectacular seventeen goals in ten games . However , the series was cancelled after five games , due to the 1919 Flu Epidemic . The final game was never played , because Joe Hall , Manager Kennedy , Billy Coutu , Jack McDonald , Louis Berlinquette and Lalonde were hospitalized with influenza , leading the Cup trustees to call off the series . Joe Hall did not survive . There after Lalonde had two fine years , but after the sale of 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 . Assessment . 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 seven times in the National Hockey Association , Pacific Coast Hockey Association , National Hockey League and Western Hockey League , an unprecedented feat in the major professional ranks and unsurpassed until Wayne Gretzky ' s tenth scoring title in 1994 . From 1910 to 1954 , he held the record for the most goals scored by a major league hockey player , including his pre - NHL totals - - 455 goals , a record later broken by Maurice Richard . On a more personal level , he was said to have been one of the meanest players of his time ; hated by opposition players and even by some of his teammates . As a coach , he once punched one of his players who tried to stand up to him , as a warning to the team , that he wouldn ' t take any talk - back . He was also elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950 , the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1965 , 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 . In 1998 he was ranked number 32 on the List of 100 greatest hockey players by The Hockey News , making him the highest - ranking player on the list who had played in a professional league before the founding of the NHL .