Joseph George Didier "Cannonball" Pitre (September 1, 1883 – July 29, 1934) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed "Cannonball," he was renowned for having one of the hardest shots during his playing career. One of the first players to join the Montreal Canadiens, Pitre and his teammates' French-Canadian heritage led to the team being nicknamed The Flying Frenchmen. His teammates on the Canadiens included Jack Laviolette and Newsy Lalonde.

Though he spent the latter part of his career almost exclusively with the Canadiens, Pitre played for several other teams in various leagues early on, including the International Professional Hockey League, the first professional hockey league, and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. A prolific scorer, Pitre won the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1916, the first for the team. In 1963 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He was the uncle of Vic Desjardins, a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

Didier Pitre's combination of speed, size and a hard shot made him one of the preeminent offensive players of his era. A forward and a right-handed shot, Pitre played predominantly on the right wing position, but he also figured occasionally on the old rover position before it was removed by the NHA in 1911–12. At times he was also used as a cover-point, and at the back end of his career with the Montreal Canadiens he would play as a defenceman.

Pitre's hard shot, which he would often fire from long range, was often dubbed a "bullet shot" in contemporary newspaper reports. In an interview with Mike Jay of the Vancouver Daily World in December 1913, while he was playing for the Vancouver Millionaires in the PCHA, Pitre explained that he generally used the center area of the stick blade while firing his shots, because it required considerable speed and strength to get the puck away. Pitre claimed that about 90 percent of the players instead used to shoot with the heel of the stick blade, because it was easier and felt more natural, but that his own favorite place to shoot from was the center area of the blade because it made it easier for him to "place" the puck. Regarding the "bullet shot" nickname, Pitre claimed that his teammates had come up with it after too many of his shots had rattled Montreal Wanderers net guardian Riley Hern.^[5]

Although not considered one of the roughest players of his era, Pitre still had a bulky frame and could still handle himself physically if he had to, which in some seasons resulted in a fairly high amount of penalty minutes. Outside of ice hockey Pitre also played lacrosse, with the Montreal Nationals, and during the 1913 season he ended up in a Toronto police court after he had lost his temper during a game in Toronto on July 26, between the Nationals and the Torontos, and punched referee Thomas Humphreys in the face.^[6] Pitre claimed that he used a similar shot technique in hockey as he did in lacrosse, with the exception of a lower type of movement in his hockey shot and the speed amounted from his skating.^[5]

According to player and executive Lester Patrick Pitre shot a "heavy puck," similar to the baseball parlance of a "heavy ball," and he also claimed that Pitre once had knocked a goaltender unconscious for three hours with a puck after it had struck him on the forehead. Patrick also praised Pitre as a "clear-headed thinker" on the ice, which he claimed is what made him into a superstar player.^[7]

At the end of his hockey career Pitre sold his business in Montreal and moved to Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan, where he had once started out his professional hockey career.^[8] His nephew Vic Desjardins from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, would also play in the NHL, with the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers, and would be inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.^[9]

Pitre died on July 29, 1934, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, as a result of acute indigestion.^[9]

In 1963 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.^[10]