Former University of Denver assistant coach Derek “Newsy” Lalonde, now a Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning, gained his nickname from 1950 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Édward Lalonde (no relation). Edward became “Newsy” Lalonde during the turn of the 20th century while working in a newsprint plant in Cornwall, Ontario.
The late Newsy (1897-1970) won the Stanley Cup as a star center with the Montreal Canadians in 1916. He almost won a second Cup in 1919 before the Spanish flu outbreak canceled the Stanley Cup Final after five games when the NHL Canadians stood 2-2-1 against the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion Seattle Metropolitans.
Newsy Lalonde, the namesake, won his second Stanley Cup on Sept. 28 in the Edmonton “bubble” during COVID-19 — the worst global pandemic since the Spanish flu, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Derek Lalonde, who runs the forwards for Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, has become a popular hockey figure — particularly in Denver. He checked his cell phone in the early hours of Sept. 29 upon returning to Tampa only to find more than 900 text messages from friends and family. That included a few folks from Denver who had made plans to travel to Tampa and join in the celebration.
“A ton of people reached out — a ton of Denver people,” Lalonde said. “Jay Erickson, one of my best friends (from Denver), ends up coming out and experiencing the Stanley Cup parade with me. It was so surreal and I’m just grateful to be coaching in this league. Best job in the world was being an assistant at Denver and now I’m working in the National Hockey League. I pinch myself. Hopefully, this is just getting started in my career.”
Newsy matters.
Lalonde, 48, was a 5-foot-9 goalie from Brasher Falls, N.Y., where he has tentative plans to bring the Cup for a day on Dec. 23. He was hired by then-DU coach George Gwozdecky in 2006, beginning a five-year tenure, before becoming a head coach for three teams over the next seven years, the latter two with the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League.
Cooper hired Lalonde at the beginning of the 2018-19 season, and the Lightning went on to win the President’s Trophy with 62 wins — 12 more than any other team. Then the roof caved in. Against the No. 8 seed Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay became the first President’s Trophy winner to get swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Lalonde said the Lightning felt the weight of the hockey world this past season, and that same weight will be felt by the Avalanche and a few other select teams next season. Many predicted the Avs and Bolts would face off in the Stanley Cup Final, but injury-plagued Colorado lost a Game 7 conference semifinal series for the second straight year.
“As I watch this offseason transpire, I’m feeling it for certain teams,” Lalonde said of the Stanley Cup “window.” “I look at a team like the Avalanche and a team like Vegas, everybody has them pinned as, ‘They’re going to win it.’ We’ve been that team for a couple years. I think it’s unfair but it’s a reality. It’s one thing to be a good team, it’s another thing in this day and age with social media to be expected to win the Stanley Cup.”
Lalonde’s advice for the Avs is what the Lightning used for itself.
“We have to stop protecting something we never won,” he said of Tampa’s motto. “We’re battling this pressure, we’re battling ourselves, we’re trying to protect something that we’ve never won. Just go play, go attack it.
“It’s real pressure. I appreciate the fact that our group handled it, and handled it well and got above that hump and got it done. It’s hard. You’re going to find out, following the Avs, it’s a different pressure. It’s going to be hard.”
Goosebumps might help. Lalonde felt them in a team meeting before the Stanley Cup Final against the Dallas Stars. The Lightning rolled out a video of superstar Wayne Gretzky and other members of the 1982-83 Edmonton Oilers, who were swept in the ’83 Final by the New York Islanders.
In walking to the bus outside Nassau Coliseum, Gretzky looked inside the Islanders’ locker room and didn’t anticipate what he saw for a team that had just won the Cup.
“Gretzky peeked into the room and said, ‘The Islanders were physically exhausted. They had ice bags. They were injured and mentally exhausted,” Lalonde said. “And then he said, ‘We didn’t feel like that.’
“That’s when it hits home, and given where the Avs are at, it’s worth Googling. It got me excited. I got goosebumps watching it, let alone our guys going into the Stanley Cup Final.”
Edmonton went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990.
It seems everyone who coached beside Lalonde is bound to learn from his experience.
Newsy matters.
