‘He just got hooked on hockey’
Playoff series pits Flames’ Coleman against his hometown team
There were early hints that Blake Coleman might be perfectly suited to the snarky style of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“We went to the peewee tournament in Quebec and he had, I think, the most fun just checking his mom into the snowbanks,” said Sandy Coleman, chuckling as she recounted this story about her son, now a two-time Stanley Cup champion and shooting to complete his personal three-peat this spring with the Calgary Flames. “Because he was learning to bodycheck at that point. That was, I think, his favourite part of the whole trip.”
In Blake’s defence, snowbanks were something of a novelty for a kid from Plano, Texas.
Still, an extra-large Mother Day’s bouquet for Sandy wouldn’t be his worst idea.
In this case, he’d be able to hand-deliver, because Blake is facing his hometown team in the opening round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
It’s a full circle moment for the 30-year-old winger. If not for the Dallas Stars, he might never have laced up skates in the first place.
His passion for puck started as a wide-eyed fan at the old Reunion Arena. His late grandmother Marie Hoffman was a season ticket-holder and the family photo collection includes plenty of pics of Blake in a Stars jersey, one of them on Santa’s knee.
When he first started skating lessons, there was only one public ice-surface in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — and it was almost an hour from his house. Sandy was admittedly getting tired of that commute when, thankfully, a rink opened in Plano.
“To be in Texas at that time, somebody had to introduce you to the game and somebody had to be willing to drive you 45 minutes to practice and go to 6 a.m. skates before school and things like that,” Blake said . “My mom and my grandma, the sacrifices that they made are certainly the reason that I had the opportunity to be where I am.”
While Blake was officially in enemy territory for Saturday’s Game 3 of this bestof-seven against the Stars, he was expecting quite a cheering section at American Airlines Center.
His proud parents, Sandy and Rusty, and his siblings were planning to be there.
His wife Jordan, who also hails from Texas and is a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, wasn’t going to miss it. She made the trip from Calgary with their two young kids in tow.
Marie passed away earlier this year, but she was top-ofmind for her grandson as he prepared for his first playoff battle in his own backyard.
“I obviously would have loved to have shared this with her, but I know she’s going to be watching,” Blake said. “She was such a big part of my journey, and I know that we’re sharing this in a different way.”
Sandy expected the crowd for Game 3 would also include many of his childhood coaches and teammates, likely a little torn on their allegiances. As she put it: “There will definitely be a bunch of people in the arena that may be rooting for the Stars but also rooting for Blake — a little of both.”
For those in the hockey community in the Dallas area, Coleman is a homegrown hero.
In 2020, he became the first Texas-trained player to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. In fact, his Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Stars in the championship series, although Blake didn’t get to skate at American Airlines Center since those oneof-a-kind pandemic playoffs were contested inside a bubble.
He and his buddies with the Bolts made it back-to-back titles last season before he signed a long-term contract in Calgary as a free agent.
Instead of idolizing the Stars, like he did as a tyke, he’s now trying to eliminate them.
“I was just so excited to be at the games,” Blake reminisced prior to Saturday’s puck-drop in Dallas. “I was a big (Joe) Nieuwendyk fan, and obviously (Mike) Modano was here. They had some great players who were just really exciting to watch and made hockey really enjoyable. I just loved the game. I played because I love the game, and I still do.
“It’s still not lost on me how special it is to be competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs and how many kids dream of being on this stage.”
He was one of them. Blake was three when he first told his parents that he was going to grow up to be an NHLer.
“And we were like, ‘OK honey, and you’ll be a fireman next week … ’ ” Sandy said with a laugh.
A fireman? No.
As it turns out, a Flame. “He just got hooked on hockey. He fell in love with it,” Sandy said. “He would run downstairs in the morning and I’d hear the front door open and he’d be going out to get the newspaper. And he couldn’t really read yet, but he learned ‘goal’ and ‘assist’ and ‘win.’ He learned the key words, and he could tell me who scored. He memorized every player’s number so he would say, ‘Oh, Mike Modano or Pat Verbeek or Derian Hatcher scored.’ And I’m like, ‘How do you know that?!? Because you can’t read!’
“It just became his passion on so many levels.”
The coaches and organizers from his other athletic pursuits can attest to that.
“He played every other sport but if it got in the way of hockey, it was out,” Sandy said. “He played lacrosse, but it made his legs too tired so he was like, ‘No, it’s taking away from how hard I can skate.’ He broke his foot in basketball, right before regionals, and he was like, ‘Basketball is out.’ He would slowly just eliminate other sports if they got in the way of his hockey in any way, shape or form.
“The football coaches tried really hard to convince him to play football, because he was fast. But he just had no interest. None whatsoever. It was just hockey. It was all hockey.”