Former Devils fan favorite Blake Coleman has a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
The Tampa Bay Lightning scored a goal at 13:18 in overtime against the New York Islanders on Thursday night to complete a great series. Their six-game victory over the Islanders advances them to the Stanley Cup Final. The last time they went to the Final back in 2015, they were defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks in that series. They made the conference finals four times in the past six years, but this is only their second appearance in the Final. This is a great chance to finally win the Stanley Cup. New Jersey Devils fans are going to watch from afar as one of the more beloved players in recent team history goes for gold.
We all know by now about how Blake Coleman was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning around the NHL Trade Deadline and that has worked out well for them. They did everything they needed to do since then, including getting through a global pandemic, to reach this point. They are one of the best teams in the league and adding Coleman made them that much better.
The fun fact about Tampa Bay is the fact that they have made it to this point without Steven Stamkos. He injured himself early on in the return and have continued to win. The “next man up” mentality is extremely important in sports and it has worked this time for the Lightning. All three of their series wins have come in overtime and they are the first team in NHL history to advance to the Final with such a stat.
The only negative thing about this is that it came at the expense of Andy Greene. He was a great player and captain for the New Jersey Devils during his time with them and had become somewhat of a fan favorite. He was never flashy or anything like that but he was just a good hockey player. He was traded to the Islanders at around the same time as Coleman’s trade.
There might not be two bigger fan favorites to play for the Devils over the past half-decade or so and it was cool to see them battle it out in the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, Coleman has a chance to go win the thing in what has been such a tough year for us all. It would be awesome to see one of our own lift the sacred trophy.