David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Weeks after Jessica Campbell had her first game as the first woman full-time assistant coach in NHL history with the Seattle Kraken, TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde will be making history this season in the broadcasting world.
Lalonde will be in the TSN booth Tuesday night to call the Ottawa Senators road game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It will make Lalonde the first woman to be a television play-by-play announcer of an NHL team in Canada as part of a rotating trio of Gord Miller and Matt Cullen.
If Sparty had whispered to this three-year-old girl that one day she would wake up on a Tuesday morning and call play-by-play for the Ottawa Senators, she wouldn’t have believed him.
I am incredibly excited to be in the booth tonight for my first @Senators game on @TSN_Sports pic.twitter.com/OeZ4f4vqh4
— Kenzie Lalonde (@KenzieTSN) November 12, 2024
Reactions poured in following the news, including from Cheryl Pounder, the first woman to be a color commentator in EA Sports’ NHL series, who is also a panellist and color commentator on TSN.
“It’s a great day,” Pounder posted on X. “Kenzie is super talented, knowledgeable and prepared. Kenz, you can be sure, although I’m on the other side of the broadcast tonight, I will be in your corner, dancing alongside ya!”
It’s a great day! @KenzieTSN is making her PxP NHL broadcast debut #SensvsLeafs. Kenzie is super talented, knowledgeable and prepared. Kenz, you can be sure, although I’m on the other side of the broadcast tonight…I will be in your corner, dancing alongside ya! CRUSH IT!
— Cheryl Pounder (@cherylpounder) November 12, 2024
“Congrats Kenzie. Have a great game,” wrote Carlo Colaiacovo.
“Can’t wait for more people to find out how good you are at this,” wrote Senators radio play-by-play announcer Dean Brown.
Go crush it Kenzie!! You put in the work. 💪🤩
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) November 12, 2024
In 2020, fellow Canadian Leah Hextall became the first woman to call play-by-play for a nationally televised NHL game as part of Sportsnet’s first all-female broadcast team. Hextall then joined NHL on ESPN as a play-by-play announcer for the 2021-22 season and is now employed for select games for play-by-play and rinkside reporting.
Lalonde is no stranger to calling hockey games. In 2021, she became the first woman to provide play-by-play coverage for a televised QMJHL game when the Charlottetown Islanders visited the Halifax Mooseheads.
“At first, I didn’t think much of it, and then I realized the opportunity I had to pave the way for more women to pursue the role – it was just strange to me that I was the one doing the paving,” Lalonde told Faces Magazine about calling that game.
That was a springboard that led to her role in TSN’s broadcast coverage of the 2021 women’s World Championship and CBC’s coverage of women’s hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
As a product of Stittsville, Ont., a suburb of Ottawa, Lalonde grew up cheering for the Senators and played for the Ottawa Lady Senators, so this is a full-circle moment for the 30-year-old broadcaster.
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Related: EA Sports Names Cheryl Pounder as New Color Commentator in NHL 24
