Certified Hockey Mom

It was the Roar heard around the globe.

When Rusty Coleman seized the moment and debuted a never-before-heard nickname for his son, Blake, it set off a chain reaction that took the hockey world by storm.

“At least it got my goal song changed – which I needed to get done,” laughed the Texas Tiger himself, having upgraded from the 1966 version of Working in a Coal Mine to a Katy Perry classic that he even he admits was all the rage in the clubs back in the day. “It might be a lateral move.

“But I did see a ‘Texas Tiger Fireworks’ stand in Texas when I was driving to the lake over Christmas, so it might be gaining some momentum.”

One wonders …

Does Mom, Sandy, have something in the works here to top that viral sensation from a year ago?

“We're still not really sure where it came from, but the name seems to have stuck,” she said.

“I think my husband wins with that one.

“But as long as get a couple of wins this week, we’ll be happy.”

Certainly, the bar was set high last year when the dads helped the Flames go a perfect 2-for-2 with wins over Arizona and Vegas.

For the Colemans, the 2025 version of the family road trip is already off to a good start, with good memories flooding to the surface from the moment they and their sunny disposition touched down in SoCal.

“Driving through the city last night, we talked about how we were here when he was 10 for a youth hockey trip,” Sandy said. “I remember it clearly because we were trying to find a Catholic church on Easter Sunday, and we were doing our best balancing hockey and family.

“So, having an opportunity come on a trip like this, you do think back to when he was super young instead of the grown man he’s become.”

“Honestly, it’s like everyone’s back to feeling like they’re 10 years old again,” Blake adds.

“But then, I was telling Blake even on this trip, while we still think of them as our little boys, it hits me when I go down during warmup and you’re right up against the glass. Then, you’re like, ‘'Wow, he's in the NHL.' He's made that ultimate step.’

“It’s pretty impressive.”

So, too, is the dedication a young mother showed to help her son climb the ranks and eventually reach the mountaintop.

Sandy hails Rockland County, New York, and has a hockey-playing background that helped fuel her son’s passion. Her husband – Blake’s father, Rusty – was a football player with Oklahoma State, where 5 a.m. practices were virtually unheard of.

In that sense, it was a match made in hockey heaven for young Blake, who first started skating at five years old and before long, was waking his mom up for a ride to those sunrise sessions against players much older to find-tune his skills and begin charting a path to the pros.

“It was him and his buddy – two little munchkins – against, like, 10 older, Ivy League players,” she laughed.

“Chocolate milk and donuts,” Blake says. “That was my reward!”

“That’s right!” Sandy replies. “There wasn’t much else around, so I would always run across the street to grab him his chocolate milk and donuts before dropping him off at school.

“Every time.”

Sandy was the chauffer, the skate-tier …

And soon, the team manager for Blake’s youth squads.

“She always had those figure skate-lace pulls,” Blake said of his mom’s Midas Touch. “You know the kind where you cut off all circulation and your feet can’t breathe at all?

“Those ones.”

(Fittingly, as a 33-year-old now, Blake is notoriously fidgety and sometimes needs a few tries to perfect the tension on each boot. Perhaps Sandy will be pressed into service at some point this week? I digress …)

The point is, wherever Blake was – no matter how many ice times he had, or what time the infamous tap on the shoulder came for one of those early-morning rides – Sandy was the one who made it all possible.

“I was busy booking all the tournaments and whatnot,” she said. “He played Burnaby-A, Hamilton, Streetsview, the London Jr. Knights. If we were going to travel, we were going to travel to Canada, rather than somewhere else in the States. I won’t lie, it was a lot of work.

“Back then, there weren't a lot of people that you could draw from in Texas to work with, so I read a book by Peter Twist (‘Complete Conditioning’) who coached Pavel Bure, and that sort of became my bible for training Blake off the ice and developing his nutrition.

“We had all his videos and his boards, but we kind of made our own plan as we went along.

“And here he is.”

Today, only 13 players hailing from Texas have ever played a game in the NHL.

Blake included – in a career that spans more than 500 games and a pair of Stanley Cup championships.

That, alone, is a lifetime’s worth of memories.

But as both stood at his locker at the Honda Center in Anaheim, memories of his childhood – of course – came flooding back.

“Rocky Mountain Regionals in Boise, Idaho,” Sandy, instinctively, said of her favourite youth-hockey memory. “We were an underdog team. We weren't supposed to win. And he scored in triple overtime.

“He could barely stand at that point, because by then, they were playing about a line and a half of forwards.

“There was a guy on the other team that we'd done all this coaching around because he was a phenomenal player and he was always wanting to fight and get into it, and they were chatting in the faceoff circle.

“I asked Blake after the game, 'What were you talking to Ryan about?' He said they were both so exhausted, they could barely move. They were coached to rile him up, but instead they were commiserating over how exhausted they were.

“So, after everything they went through – and for Blake to score the game-winner – that was the best.

“Especially with how unexpected it was.”

“It sent us to the national tournament,” Blake adds with a wink.

Hilariously, when asked to recall his favourite memory of his mom and the impact she’s had on his career, the Rocky Mountain Regionls, again, live prominently in the mind’s eye.

But for very different reasons.

“It was that tournament when my mom had her first margarita,” Blake laughs. “Minus the celebration after, she's a bit of a lightweight when it comes to the alcohol. One drink and she was hugging and kissing everybody. Just really happy to be there.”

“Oh yeah,” Sandy laughs. “Plenty of high-fives that night.”

“Clearly, I always remember the off-ice stuff more,” Blake adds. “When I'm on the ice, I don't see much. But I remember the celebration and the fact that she was having a drink at all must have meant that she was pretty excited.”

Time will tell if a big goal or a pair of victories this week will set off a similar reaction …

But for now, the two will spend time creating new memories together with an off night in Anaheim, before business picks up again on Tuesday against the Ducks.

For this certified hockey mom, it’s a well-earned vacation.

“I’m most grateful for the equipment staff here,” Sandy said. “What they do …

“You see, Blake wore Graf skates as a kid. But you could never get them in the States. I got him his first pair, so I started that. It’s my fault! But he loved them. So, we would literally go to Canada every time he needed a new pair, bake them, the whole thing.

“Usually, we would plan it around tournaments and that way, we didn't have to make an extra trip. But I'd always call ahead and make sure they had his size and make time.

“Blake’s a little persnickety about his equipment – so, the fact that I don’t have to go find his broken sticks and all those things now, it’s pretty nice.”