There’s been a lot of talk this season about Blake Coleman’s silky mitts.
The Texas Tiger is in the midst of a career year offensively, matching his previous best of 22 goals with a momentum-changing marker this past Monday against the Jets.
There was even chatter earlier this year about whether the 32-year-old would have made a deserving All-Star candidate.
But is it time to start talking about Coleman’s Selke mitts?
As we enter the final third of the regular season, Coleman’s +24 rating ranks second among NHL forwards - and sixth overall - and his line with Mikael Backlund and Andrew Mangiapane has routinely frustrated opposing stars.
Monday against Winnipeg, the Coleman line played more than 11 minutes at even strength against the Jets’ top unit of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi, outscoring them 2-0 and outchancing them 11-3, per Natural Stat Trick.
Coleman’s time in the NHL - from New Jersey, to Tampa, to Wild Rose Country - has been an exercise in 200-foot hockey, but this season, it’s certainly fair to suggest he's been one of the better defensive forwards in the league.
“It’s kind of what I’ve made a career out of,” he said Wednesday about his commitment to the defensive side of the game. “Obviously I can produce a little bit offensively but it’s always kind of been by M.O. to play hard defensively and be a hard guy to play against.
“I embrace it, it’s what makes me valuable to a team; I’m not super-flashy, or somebody that’s going to wow you with a ton of plays, but I feel like I understand the game well on both sides, and I always want to win, so that competitive fire is there.”
The trio has pushed the play when on the ice this season, owning north of 58% of the high-danger chances during their shifts together this season, despite starting in the offensive zone for only 25% of their 384 face-offs at 5-on-5.
Coleman figures that’s all part of the line’s mindset to spend as little time in the defensive zone as possible, and per NHL Edge - the league’s advanced stats system, he’s spent almost 42% of his ice-time in the offensive end of the rink.
“At the end of the day, the reason we’re so successful is we intend to play in the O-zone pretty much throughout the entire shift,” he said, “that’s what makes it difficult for top lines, is if they have to play defence.”
The trio takes pride in facing off against the best their NHL opponents have to offer; for Coleman, each night presents a new challenge and this week is no exception, with the likes of Boston’s David Pastrnak and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid up next on the schedule.
“It’s easy to get up for; the three of us have been doing it in different places, but we’ve doing it for a long time in this league,” Coleman said, “it’s something we pride ourselves on.
“You can’t have an ‘off’ shift, and you know that going into a game against a line like the ones we’re going to face coming down the stretch here.”
Since re-joining Coleman and Backlund, Mangiapane’s noticed the same chemistry, too, with the secret of their success boiling down to the power of conversation, mixed in with a bit of elbow grease.
“There’s a lot of communication, a lot of chemistry with our line,” he said Wednesday, “obviously Backs and Colesy are two smart, hard-working defensive players, so they’re going to lock it down; us as a line, we just kind of go out there, we work hard and we don’t want to give up much.
“I think we take pride in going up against other teams’ top players and take pride in wanting to shut them down every night.”
But no matter his linemates, Coleman’s been a model of consistency this season.
He went on a 28-game run - from Nov. 22 through Jan. 20 - without being on the wrong side of the plus/minus register.
On the penalty-kill, he’s been dangerous as well, scoring four short-handed markers over a 16-day span in December including a game-winner against the Hurricanes Dec. 7.
It’s that off-puck aggression that’s bound to serve the Coleman-Backlund-Mangiapane line well, as the Flames continue to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.
“We all think the game pretty similar, it’s pretty automatic that I know where both of them are going to be in most situations on the ice,” Coleman said, “having that comfort in knowing where your guys are is nice, it makes the game a little bit easier for you.
“We all check hard, we want to get above the puck, but we all want to go and control the puck in the O-zone and play some offence.
“That same mindset’s got us where we are.”
