It’s become a bit of an inside joke for the Calgary Flames.
It started earlier this season with a locker-room speech from head coach Ryan Huska, who was stressing to the NHL’s lowest-scoring squad that will can be just as important as skill when it comes to putting the puck in the back of the net.
Huska pointed to Blake Coleman as proof.
Last we heard, the kids were calling this ‘catching a stray.’
“On The Chase too, I couldn’t believe it. Or maybe they cut it out to save me,” Coleman said with a playful shake of his head. “He was just making a point that you can still score goals without having elite hands in this league. So me and Huby, every time I score now, we just kind of stare at our hands in disbelief.”
It happened again Thursday.
The 33-year-old winger buried on a breakaway against the San Jose Sharks and as he cruised by the home bench for the standard high-fives, he was greeted by a grinning Jonathan Huberdeau, his palms turned skyward and staring at his Bauers as if there must be some mistake.
Perhaps, after that nifty finish, there should be a moratorium on any wisecracks about Coleman’s mitts.
He has now scored seven on the season, tops among Flames. In fact, his closest teammate would need a hat-trick to catch up.
He is on pace to pot 30, which would equal his career-high from the 2023-24 campaign.
This is the most eye-opening stat of them all … Coleman has accounted for 17.9 per cent of Calgary’s goals this fall. In a scoring-by-committee approach, he’s currently the committee.
To add some perspective, this is surprisingly close to the offensive load that Leon Draisaitl carries for the Edmonton Oilers (20.7 per cent), Cole Caufield for the Montreal Canadiens (20.7 per cent) and Nathan MacKinnon for the Colorado Avalanche (18.9 per cent).
Those guys are all in the Rocket Richard Trophy hunt. They don’t skate on shutdown lines.
Coleman, who has already been mentioned as a potential trade target with the Flames sitting at the bottom of the standings, could be described in a lot of different ways … A 200-foot player. A trustworthy checker. A wily veteran. A lead-by-example type. A two-time Stanley Cup champion.
A sniper, though? He likely hasn’t been called that since he was terrorizing minor-hockey goalies in Texas or tearing up the USHL.
Huska tried to put it politely during Thursday’s post-game presser, saying: “It’s not like his hands are outstanding.”
“I think he’s a goal scorer,” Huberdeau countered after Friday’s practice at the Saddledome. “He’s really good around the net. When he gets the puck around the net, he can find some holes in the goaltender, so I’m not surprised with that. I mean, a guy with no hands scoring 30, it’s pretty hard.
“Look at last night … It was a great move and he puts it top shelf. So he has some good hands around the net, I would say.”
Blake Coleman takes the puck to the net against the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 11.
It’s true, if you rewind the tape of Coleman’s seven goals this fall, it hasn’t been a bunch of cover-your-eyes groaners.
We’d classify the majority, including Thursday’s strike against the Sharks, as opportunistic. Coleman made the most of a malfunction at the junction — San Jose’s Sam Dickinson and Philipp Kurashev were treating this puck like a hot potato — but he still had spring it loose, evade a poke-check from Yaroslav Askarov and zip it inside the post on the glove side.
While that opening night gift from Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner may seem a little lucky, how many guys would have beelined straight to the blue paint like that?
“He knows where to go and he’s very competitive, so he has zero fear in his game,” Huska said. “If that means he’s going to crash into someone to try to score, then he is going to do that. Where other people, in certain situations, may be hesitant to go to the areas that he has no problem going to.
“He thinks the game really well. He understands where the puck is going to go. And when you throw that no-fear factor in, it allows him to be in positions to score goals.”
Without him, the Flames would be scoring barely any.
Maybe these hands are not getting enough credit.
“I’m gonna get this all year, eh?” Coleman quipped in Thursday’s post-game scrum. “Whatever, as long as the puck goes in, I can beat it up a little bit.”
ICE CHIPS: Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar was M.I.A. for Friday’s practice, but Huska assured that he’ll be in the lineup for a Hockey Night in Canada clash with the Winnipeg Jets. “Just a maintenance day,” Huska said. “He’s good. He’ll be in there tomorrow.”
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