Percy LeSueur
Encyclopedia
Sergeant Percy St. Helier LeSueur (November 18, 1881 – January 27, 1962) was a Canadian senior and professional ice hockey
goaltender
. He was a member of the Smiths Falls Seniors for three years, with whom his performance in a 1906 Stanley Cup
challenge series attracted the attention of his opponents, the Ottawa Silver Seven
. Although his team lost the series, LeSueur excelled in goal, keeping the games close. Nine days after the defeat, he joined the Silver Seven and played in a challenge match against the Montreal Wanderers
. He remained with Ottawa through the 1913–14 season
where he served as team captain for three seasons, and assumed coaching duties in his final season with the team.
LeSueur was traded to the Toronto Shamrocks for the 1914–15 season
. After playing the following season for the Toronto Blueshirts
, he enlisted in the army and fought for Canada during the First World War. He returned to hockey following the conclusion of the war, serving in various roles including referee, coach, manager, arena manager, and hockey journalist. He coached ten games in the National Hockey League
(NHL) with the Hamilton Tigers. As a journalist, he was the first reporter to include shots on goal
statistics in game summaries.
During his playing career, LeSueur improved upon existing ice hockey equipment: he invented the gauntlet-style goaltender glove which protected the forearms, and created and patented the LeSueur net which was designed to catch high-rising shots. LeSueur was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame
in 1961, and died a few months later following a lengthy illness.
. For the 1903–04 season, he moved to Smiths Falls, Ontario, to play for the Seniors. When the team's usual goaltender
fell ill, LeSueur agreed to play goal.
In March 1906, the Seniors issued a challenge for the Stanley Cup
to the Ottawa Silver Seven
. (During that era, teams were allowed to challenge the present Cup holder once a year for possession, provided they were part of a senior hockey association and had won their league championship.) In the two-game, total goals series, Smiths Falls lost the first game 6–5, and the second game 8–2. Both games were played at Dey's Arena
in Ottawa, on March 6 and 8. Despite giving up 14 goals during the series, LeSueur's work in net was impressive: the Montreal Star
remarked that his performance in the first game had kept the Seniors in contention, noting that the "most spectacular saves of the match were made by [him]".
, following a 9–1 defeat at the hands of the Montreal Wanderers
in the first game of their two-game, total-goals Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association
(ECAHA) playoff series for control of the Stanley Cup. The Silver Seven called the timing of LeSueur's arrival a coincidence, but with an eight-goal lead in the series, the Wanderers did not protest LeSueur's eligibility.
In the second game, played on March 17, LeSueur surrendered an early goal to Moose Johnson
but subsequently held the Wanderers scoreless while the Silver Seven scored nine straight goals to bring the two teams even. Frank Smith
appeared to put Ottawa ahead 11–10, but what would have been his seventh goal of the game was disallowed by an offside call. The Wanderers responded with a "furious attack", resulting in Lester Patrick
scoring two late goals, leading Montreal to a 12–10 series victory and the Stanley Cup. LeSueur was the first goaltender, and one of only two (with Hugh Lehman, 1909–10) to play for two different teams in Stanley Cup challenges in the same season.
LeSueur played for Ottawa through the 1913–14 season. In 1908, he was the team's sole representative at the Hod Stuart Benefit All-Star Game, played on January 2. Stuart
, a member of the Wanderers squad who won the Stanley Cup in 1907, had drowned in the previous off-season and the ECAHA responded by organizing an All-Star game, the first of its kind in any sport, with its proceeds going to Stuart's widow and their two children. The Wanderers defeated a team of All-Stars, made up of the top players of the league's other teams, 10–7. LeSueur remarked in the Ottawa Free Press that while joining the Silver Seven was his "biggest thrill", his participation in the All-Star Game came a "close second".
In the 1909 ECHA season, LeSueur won the Stanley Cup with the Ottawa, now nicknamed the Senators, after the team led the league with 10 wins. During the same season, he wrote a 48-page booklet entitled How to Play Hockey, a work similar to Arthur Farrell's handbook Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game
, the first book published on ice hockey, 10 years earlier. LeSueur's book was particularly popular among youngsters.
LeSueur was named captain of the Senators for the 1910–11 season. The team led the regular season standings in the National Hockey Association
(NHA) with 13 wins, regaining possession of the Stanley Cup. LeSueur was the league leader in goaltender wins in both the 1909 and 1910–11 seasons, having appeared in every game Ottawa played. During 1913–14, his last season with the Senators, LeSueur served as both the coach and captain of the team.
and $300, as the Ottawa club engaged Clint Benedict
for its goaltender's job. At the time of the deal, LeSueur had been the last member of either the 1909 or 1911 Stanley Cup winning teams still in Ottawa. Coincidentally, LeSueur's last season with Ottawa also marked the end of the Stanley Cup challenge era. In Stanley Cup play, LeSueur had a 7–2 overall record and was undefeated in seven games with Ottawa.
After one season with the Shamrocks in 1914–15, LeSueur finished his playing career with the cross-town rival Toronto Blueshirts
in 1915–16. He had a losing record with both Toronto clubs. LeSueur initially became a full-time practicing accountant after retiring as a player, but enlisted with the 48th Highlanders, who served as the 134th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force
in the First World War.
(NHL). Afterwards, he coached in the minor leagues and the NHL. In 1921, he was behind the bench when the Galt, Ontario intermediate team won the Ontario Hockey Association
(OHA) championship. He was appointed the Hamilton Tigers' head coach for the 1923–24 NHL season, but coached only the first 10 games of the 24-game schedule. When LeSueur was fired, the team had a 3–7 record, and finished the season last in the standings with an overall record of 9–15.
LeSueur went on to manage several arenas and guided the creation of new teams. As manager of the Windsor Arena and the Detroit Olympia
, he helped assemble an ownership group that acquired the Victoria Cougars
from the Western Hockey League
(WHL) prior to the 1926–27 season. The team joined the NHL as the Detroit Cougars, now known as the Red Wings
. In the 1928–29, he managed the Peace Bridge Arena in Fort Erie, Ontario
. He guided the Buffalo Bisons' entry as an inaugural member of the International Hockey League (IHL) when it split from the Canadian Professional Hockey League
(CPHL), and served as the team's coach. LeSueur joined the Syracuse Stars
of the IHL as head coach for the 1930–31 season, but was replaced mid-season by Frank Foyston
. LeSueur also managed the Syracuse Arena. While he was an IHL coach, he used his spare players during game intermissions to explain the rules of hockey to new spectators.
Following his coaching and managing career, LeSueur turned to journalism. He was a columnist for The Hamilton Spectator
, and was the first reporter to list shots on goal
in game summaries. In addition to writing, he was a radio broadcaster. He used this role to help sell the game in regions without an ice hockey tradition. LeSueur was an original member of Hockey Night in Canada
s "Hot Stove League", a panel of hockey writers which discussed issues within hockey.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame
in 1961 as a player. In 1968, he was posthumously inducted as one of the 55 original members of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.
. His playing style was exemplified in a game against the Quebec Bulldogs
, where LeSueur was reported to have sprinted towards and "floored" an opposing forward who was on a breakaway.
Described as a "thinking man's custodian", LeSueur is credited with two major innovations to ice hockey equipment. Around 1909, he experimented with using a baseball catcher's glove with extra padding to catch the puck. LeSueur later developed gauntlet-style gloves to protect the goaltender's forearms. He also designed the patented LeSueur net which was used from 1911 to 1925, first by the NHA and then its successor, the NHL. The net was designed to trap rising shots, with the rear frame 22 inches behind the goal mouth at the bottom of the net but only 17 inches at the top. Art Ross
later improved on LeSueur's design, and his eponymous net was used by the NHL from 1927 to 1984.
obituary, fellow Hall of Famer Newsy Lalonde
described him as "one the best goalies he ever faced", and Cyclone Taylor
, a teammate on the 1909 Stanley Cup-winning Senators team, stated that LeSueur would always be in goal whenever "he was asked to pick an All-Star team".
Percy, a Presbyterian, was married to Georgia LeSueur. One of his children, Steve Douglas, followed his father into radio broadcasting: at the time of his father's death, Douglas was a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) sports commentator.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
goaltender
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
. He was a member of the Smiths Falls Seniors for three years, with whom his performance in a 1906 Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
challenge series attracted the attention of his opponents, the Ottawa Silver Seven
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
. Although his team lost the series, LeSueur excelled in goal, keeping the games close. Nine days after the defeat, he joined the Silver Seven and played in a challenge match against the Montreal Wanderers
Montreal Wanderers
The Montreal Wanderers were a Canadian amateur, and later becoming a professional men's ice hockey team. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League , the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association , the National Hockey Association and briefly the National Hockey League . The Wanderers are...
. He remained with Ottawa through the 1913–14 season
1913–14 NHA season
The 1913–14 NHA season was the fifth season of the National Hockey Association . At the end of the regular season, a tie for first place necessitated a playoff to determine the championship. The Toronto Hockey Club defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6–2 in a two-game, total-goals playoff...
where he served as team captain for three seasons, and assumed coaching duties in his final season with the team.
LeSueur was traded to the Toronto Shamrocks for the 1914–15 season
1914–15 NHA season
The 1914–15 NHA season was the sixth season of the National Hockey Association and played from December 26, 1914 until March 3, 1915. Each team played 20 games. The Ottawa Senators won the NHA championship in a two game, total goal playoff against the Montreal Wanderers...
. After playing the following season for the Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Blueshirts
The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
, he enlisted in the army and fought for Canada during the First World War. He returned to hockey following the conclusion of the war, serving in various roles including referee, coach, manager, arena manager, and hockey journalist. He coached ten games in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL) with the Hamilton Tigers. As a journalist, he was the first reporter to include shots on goal
Shot on goal
In ice hockey, a shot on goal is a shot that will enter the goal if it is not stopped by the goaltender. A shot on goal must result in either a goal or a save....
statistics in game summaries.
During his playing career, LeSueur improved upon existing ice hockey equipment: he invented the gauntlet-style goaltender glove which protected the forearms, and created and patented the LeSueur net which was designed to catch high-rising shots. LeSueur was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
in 1961, and died a few months later following a lengthy illness.
Smiths Falls
Born in Quebec City, Quebec, LeSueur played amateur hockey in his hometown with several teams on the right wingWinger (ice hockey)
Winger, in the game of hockey, is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play on the ice is along the outer playing area. They typically work by flanking the centre forward. Originally the name was given to forward players who went up and down the sides of the rink...
. For the 1903–04 season, he moved to Smiths Falls, Ontario, to play for the Seniors. When the team's usual goaltender
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
fell ill, LeSueur agreed to play goal.
In March 1906, the Seniors issued a challenge for the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
to the Ottawa Silver Seven
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
. (During that era, teams were allowed to challenge the present Cup holder once a year for possession, provided they were part of a senior hockey association and had won their league championship.) In the two-game, total goals series, Smiths Falls lost the first game 6–5, and the second game 8–2. Both games were played at Dey's Arena
Dey's Arena
Dey's Arena, also known as Dey Brothers Rink, Dey's Skating Rink and The Arena, were a series of ice rinks and arenas located in Ottawa, Ontario, that hold importance in the early development of the organized sport of ice hockey in Canada...
in Ottawa, on March 6 and 8. Despite giving up 14 goals during the series, LeSueur's work in net was impressive: the Montreal Star
Montreal Star
The Montreal Star was an English-language Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It folded in 1979 following an eight-month pressmen's strike....
remarked that his performance in the first game had kept the Seniors in contention, noting that the "most spectacular saves of the match were made by [him]".
Ottawa
Following his team's loss in the challenge match, LeSueur, a bank clerk, moved 60 kilometres northeast along the rail line to Ottawa. (During his playing years, it was customary for players to have an occupation outside of hockey.) Impressed by his performance, the Silver Seven asked him to join their team. Ottawa had lost confidence in its previous goalkeeper, Billy HagueBilly Hague
William "Billy" Robert Hague was a professional ice hockey goaltender. He won the Stanley Cup with the Ottawa Hockey Club in 1905. He played in three other Stanley Cup challenges during his career....
, following a 9–1 defeat at the hands of the Montreal Wanderers
Montreal Wanderers
The Montreal Wanderers were a Canadian amateur, and later becoming a professional men's ice hockey team. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League , the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association , the National Hockey Association and briefly the National Hockey League . The Wanderers are...
in the first game of their two-game, total-goals Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association
Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association
The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association was a men's amateur, later professional ice hockey league in Canada that played four seasons. It was founded on December 11, 1905 with six clubs: four from the Canadian Amateur Hockey League and two from the Federal Amateur Hockey League, to bring...
(ECAHA) playoff series for control of the Stanley Cup. The Silver Seven called the timing of LeSueur's arrival a coincidence, but with an eight-goal lead in the series, the Wanderers did not protest LeSueur's eligibility.
In the second game, played on March 17, LeSueur surrendered an early goal to Moose Johnson
Moose Johnson
Thomas Ernest "Ernie, Moose" Johnson was a Canadian ice hockey player whose professional career spanned from 1905 to 1931....
but subsequently held the Wanderers scoreless while the Silver Seven scored nine straight goals to bring the two teams even. Frank Smith
Frank Smith (ice hockey)
Frank D. Smith was a Canadian ice hockey administrator. He is recognized for contributing to the organization of the Beaches Hockey League, which eventually became the Greater Toronto Hockey League, the largest minor league hockey organization in the world...
appeared to put Ottawa ahead 11–10, but what would have been his seventh goal of the game was disallowed by an offside call. The Wanderers responded with a "furious attack", resulting in Lester Patrick
Lester Patrick
Curtis Lester "The Silver Fox" Patrick born in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, was a professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association , and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League...
scoring two late goals, leading Montreal to a 12–10 series victory and the Stanley Cup. LeSueur was the first goaltender, and one of only two (with Hugh Lehman, 1909–10) to play for two different teams in Stanley Cup challenges in the same season.
LeSueur played for Ottawa through the 1913–14 season. In 1908, he was the team's sole representative at the Hod Stuart Benefit All-Star Game, played on January 2. Stuart
Hod Stuart
William Hodgson "Hod" Stuart was a Canadian professional ice hockey cover-point who played nine seasons for several teams in different leagues. He also played briefly for the Ottawa Rough Riders football team...
, a member of the Wanderers squad who won the Stanley Cup in 1907, had drowned in the previous off-season and the ECAHA responded by organizing an All-Star game, the first of its kind in any sport, with its proceeds going to Stuart's widow and their two children. The Wanderers defeated a team of All-Stars, made up of the top players of the league's other teams, 10–7. LeSueur remarked in the Ottawa Free Press that while joining the Silver Seven was his "biggest thrill", his participation in the All-Star Game came a "close second".
In the 1909 ECHA season, LeSueur won the Stanley Cup with the Ottawa, now nicknamed the Senators, after the team led the league with 10 wins. During the same season, he wrote a 48-page booklet entitled How to Play Hockey, a work similar to Arthur Farrell's handbook Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game
Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game
Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game, by Arthur Farrell, is the first book written on ice hockey, in 1899.Farrell, a professional player, won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Shamrocks of the Canadian Amateur Hockey League in 1899 and 1900. He wrote the book in the middle of his career, in response...
, the first book published on ice hockey, 10 years earlier. LeSueur's book was particularly popular among youngsters.
LeSueur was named captain of the Senators for the 1910–11 season. The team led the regular season standings in the National Hockey Association
National Hockey Association
The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League...
(NHA) with 13 wins, regaining possession of the Stanley Cup. LeSueur was the league leader in goaltender wins in both the 1909 and 1910–11 seasons, having appeared in every game Ottawa played. During 1913–14, his last season with the Senators, LeSueur served as both the coach and captain of the team.
Toronto
LeSueur was traded to the Toronto Shamrocks for Fred LakeFred Lake (ice hockey)
Fred Edgar Lake was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was one of the first professional players and he played 181 games in various professional and amateur leagues, including the National Hockey Association, Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association, and International Professional...
and $300, as the Ottawa club engaged Clint Benedict
Clint Benedict
Clinton Stevenson "Praying Bennie" Benedict was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Maroons. He played on four Stanley Cup-winning squads. He was the first goaltender in the National Hockey League to wear a face mask...
for its goaltender's job. At the time of the deal, LeSueur had been the last member of either the 1909 or 1911 Stanley Cup winning teams still in Ottawa. Coincidentally, LeSueur's last season with Ottawa also marked the end of the Stanley Cup challenge era. In Stanley Cup play, LeSueur had a 7–2 overall record and was undefeated in seven games with Ottawa.
After one season with the Shamrocks in 1914–15, LeSueur finished his playing career with the cross-town rival Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Blueshirts
The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
in 1915–16. He had a losing record with both Toronto clubs. LeSueur initially became a full-time practicing accountant after retiring as a player, but enlisted with the 48th Highlanders, who served as the 134th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were divided into field formation in France, where they were organized first into separate divisions and later joined together into a single...
in the First World War.
Post-war
Following the war, LeSueur returned to hockey in a variety of roles. Over time, he appeared as a referee, coach, manager, arena manager, and journalist. His first job was as a referee in the National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL). Afterwards, he coached in the minor leagues and the NHL. In 1921, he was behind the bench when the Galt, Ontario intermediate team won the Ontario Hockey Association
Ontario Hockey Association
The Ontario Hockey Association is the governing body for the majority of Junior and Senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. Other Ontario sanctioning bodies along with the...
(OHA) championship. He was appointed the Hamilton Tigers' head coach for the 1923–24 NHL season, but coached only the first 10 games of the 24-game schedule. When LeSueur was fired, the team had a 3–7 record, and finished the season last in the standings with an overall record of 9–15.
LeSueur went on to manage several arenas and guided the creation of new teams. As manager of the Windsor Arena and the Detroit Olympia
Detroit Olympia
Olympia Stadium, better known as the Detroit Olympia and nicknamed The Old Red Barn, stood at 5920 Grand River Avenue in Detroit, Michigan from 1927 until 1987. It was best known as the home of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team of the National Hockey League from its opening until...
, he helped assemble an ownership group that acquired the Victoria Cougars
Victoria Cougars
The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1922 to 1924, and in the Western Hockey League from 1924 to 1926...
from the Western Hockey League
Western Canada Hockey League
The Western Canada Hockey League , founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.-History:...
(WHL) prior to the 1926–27 season. The team joined the NHL as the Detroit Cougars, now known as the Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...
. In the 1928–29, he managed the Peace Bridge Arena in Fort Erie, Ontario
Fort Erie, Ontario
Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly across the river from Buffalo, New York....
. He guided the Buffalo Bisons' entry as an inaugural member of the International Hockey League (IHL) when it split from the Canadian Professional Hockey League
Canadian Professional Hockey League
The Canadian Professional Hockey League, also known as Canpro, was a minor professional hockey league founded in 1926. After three seasons, it became the International Hockey League in 1929...
(CPHL), and served as the team's coach. LeSueur joined the Syracuse Stars
Syracuse Stars
The Syracuse Stars were a minor professional ice hockey team from Syracuse, New York, existing for 10 season from 1930 to 1940. The Stars name had previously been used by sports teams, including several Syracuse Stars baseball teams from the 19th century....
of the IHL as head coach for the 1930–31 season, but was replaced mid-season by Frank Foyston
Frank Foyston
Frank Corbett "The Flash" Foyston was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward.Born in Minesing, Ontario, Foyston played for the Toronto Blueshirts of the NHA, the Seattle Metropolitans in the PCHA, the Victoria Cougars in the WCHL/WHL and Detroit Cougars in the NHL.He won the Stanley Cup with...
. LeSueur also managed the Syracuse Arena. While he was an IHL coach, he used his spare players during game intermissions to explain the rules of hockey to new spectators.
Following his coaching and managing career, LeSueur turned to journalism. He was a columnist for The Hamilton Spectator
The Hamilton Spectator
The Hamilton Spectator, founded in 1846, is a newspaper published every day but Sunday in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The paper has a daily circulation of 105,000 and a daily readership of nearly 260,000.-History:...
, and was the first reporter to list shots on goal
Shot on goal
In ice hockey, a shot on goal is a shot that will enter the goal if it is not stopped by the goaltender. A shot on goal must result in either a goal or a save....
in game summaries. In addition to writing, he was a radio broadcaster. He used this role to help sell the game in regions without an ice hockey tradition. LeSueur was an original member of Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada is the branding used for CBC Sports' presentations of the National Hockey League...
s "Hot Stove League", a panel of hockey writers which discussed issues within hockey.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
in 1961 as a player. In 1968, he was posthumously inducted as one of the 55 original members of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.
Playing style and innovations
During LeSueur's career, ice hockey rules forbade goalkeepers from lying, sitting, kneeling, or otherwise falling onto the ice to make a save. Forced to play a stand-up style, LeSueur was aggressive in goal and was sufficiently athletic to be able to stop two or three shots in quick succession. Hockey historian Bill Fitsell noted that he had an "intense roving style", playing the puck outside of his crease in a style popularized forty years later by Jacques PlanteJacques Plante
Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. During a career lasting from 1947–1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey...
. His playing style was exemplified in a game against the Quebec Bulldogs
Quebec Bulldogs
The Quebec Bulldogs were a men's senior-level ice hockey team officially known as the Quebec Hockey Club, later as the Quebec Athletic Club. Their recorded play goes back as far as the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in 1889, although the Quebec Hockey Club is known to have played since 1880...
, where LeSueur was reported to have sprinted towards and "floored" an opposing forward who was on a breakaway.
Described as a "thinking man's custodian", LeSueur is credited with two major innovations to ice hockey equipment. Around 1909, he experimented with using a baseball catcher's glove with extra padding to catch the puck. LeSueur later developed gauntlet-style gloves to protect the goaltender's forearms. He also designed the patented LeSueur net which was used from 1911 to 1925, first by the NHA and then its successor, the NHL. The net was designed to trap rising shots, with the rear frame 22 inches behind the goal mouth at the bottom of the net but only 17 inches at the top. Art Ross
Art Ross
Arthur Howey "Art" Ross was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman and executive from 1905 until 1954. Regarded as one of the best defenders of his era by his peers, he was one of the first to skate with the puck up the ice rather than pass it to a forward...
later improved on LeSueur's design, and his eponymous net was used by the NHL from 1927 to 1984.
Personal life
LeSueur died on January 27, 1962, following a lengthy illness, a few months after his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In a Canadian PressCanadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
obituary, fellow Hall of Famer Newsy Lalonde
Newsy Lalonde
Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League and a professional lacrosse player, regarded as one of hockey's and lacrosse's greatest players of the first half of the 20th century and one of sport's most colourful characters...
described him as "one the best goalies he ever faced", and Cyclone Taylor
Cyclone Taylor
Frederick Wellington "Cyclone" Taylor, OBE, was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and civil servant. Taylor was one of the earliest professional players. He played professionally for the Portage Lakes Hockey Club, the Ottawa Hockey Club and the Vancouver Millionaires from 1905 to 1923...
, a teammate on the 1909 Stanley Cup-winning Senators team, stated that LeSueur would always be in goal whenever "he was asked to pick an All-Star team".
Percy, a Presbyterian, was married to Georgia LeSueur. One of his children, Steve Douglas, followed his father into radio broadcasting: at the time of his father's death, Douglas was a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(CBC) sports commentator.
Regular season
| Season Season (sports) In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an... |
Team | League | GP | W | L | T | SO | GAA Goals against average Goals Against Average is a statistic used in ice hockey, water polo, lacrosse, and soccer that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender.... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1903–04 | Smiths Falls Seniors | OHA Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association is the governing body for the majority of Junior and Senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. Other Ontario sanctioning bodies along with the... |
6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2.11 |
| 1904–05 | Smiths Falls Seniors | OHA | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1905–06 | Smiths Falls Seniors | FAHL Federal Amateur Hockey League The Federal Amateur Hockey League was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hockey League . One team, the Montreal Le National, was the first... |
7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.30 |
| 1906–07 | Ottawa Senators Ottawa Senators (original) The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934... |
ECAHA Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association was a men's amateur, later professional ice hockey league in Canada that played four seasons. It was founded on December 11, 1905 with six clubs: four from the Canadian Amateur Hockey League and two from the Federal Amateur Hockey League, to bring... |
10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5.38 |
| 1907–08 | Ottawa Senators | ECAHA | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4.86 |
| 1908–09 | Ottawa Senators | ECHA | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5.19 |
| 1909–10 | Ottawa Senators | CHA | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.50 |
| 1909–10 | Ottawa Senators | NHA National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League... |
12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5.41 |
| 1910–11 | Ottawa Senators | NHA | 16 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4.18 |
| 1911–12 | Ottawa Senators | NHA | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4.84 |
| 1912–13 | Ottawa Senators | NHA | 18 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4.18 |
| 1913–14 | Ottawa Senators | NHA | 13 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 3.26 |
| 1914–15 | Toronto Shamrocks | NHA | 19 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 5.03 |
| 1915–16 | Toronto Blueshirts Toronto Blueshirts The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada... |
NHA | 23 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 3.90 |
Stanley Cup challenge games
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | T | SO | GAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1905–06 | Smiths Falls Seniors | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7.00 |
| 1905–06 | Ottawa Senators | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
| 1909–10 | Ottawa Senators | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.75 |
| 1910–11 | Ottawa Senators | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.00 |
External links
- Hockey: A People's History at CBC.ca; radio clips of LeSueur explaining various stories about the game.