Coleman hoping to end hectic season with a long playoff run

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Blake Coleman has high expectations for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Traded to the Lightning in mid-February from New Jersey in exchange for Tampa Bay's first round draft pick in 2020 or 2021 (via Vancouver) and prospect Nolan Foote, Coleman only got to play nine games with his new team before the National Hockey League hit pause on the 2019-20 season due to COVID-19.

But in that short amount of time, Coleman saw a team poised to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup. And now that the NHL is transitioning to Phase 2 of their Return to Play plan with players being allowed to train in small groups of no more than six at their club's facilities starting Monday, June 8, Coleman's thrilled to finally having a tangible goal to work toward after so many weeks of uncertainly as well as the prospect of the Lightning getting to finish what they started.

"I think it's going to be one of the best playoffs there's been in a long time because everybody's healthy and everybody's ready to rock," Coleman said during a video conference call with media Friday afternoon. "I'm excited to be a part of it, and I know I speak for everybody on the team when I say that we're ready to go."

Last week, the NHL announced a number of changes to the playoff format to accommodate the unusual end to the regular season. The top four seeds in each conference - of which the Lightning are one - will get an automatic bye into the first round. The remaining seeds five through 12 in each conference will square off in best-of-five qualifying round series.

There was some concern among the top-seeded teams about not playing competitive games before starting their playoffs while the lower seeds will have already been battle-tested. The Lightning were one of two teams, along with Carolina, to vote against the League's Return to Play proposal for this reason.

To acknowledge those concerns, the top four seeds in each conference will play a round robin against one another to determine seeds one through four for the quarterfinal round and beyond. The tiebreaker in that scenario would be regular season points percentage. The Lightning finished second in the Eastern Conference with a .657 points percentage behind only Boston (.714).

"I think they did as good of a job as they could have," Coleman said of the Return to Play committee's proposal. "There's a lot of different circumstances that went into it. I know guys were originally concerned about not having competitive games before the first round kicked in, but they did a good job coming up with a way to give us a handful of games before the playoffs start that are still meaningful playing for seeding. But most importantly just getting back into that game shape and that mindset. I think it's as fair and as competitive as they can make it."

Coleman also thought making every round of the playoffs a best-of-seven scenario once the qualifying round is complete was the right call.

"I think that keeps the integrity of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and prevents any excuses made for whoever ultimately wins the Cup," Coleman said. "The best team should come out of this."

This postseason won't follow a traditional bracket. Instead, in each succeeding round of the playoffs, the highest seed in each conference will play the lowest seed, the second-highest seed will play the second-lowest seed, etc. That gives more incentive for teams like the Lightning to perform well during the round-robin phase and earn the top seed so they'll play the lowest seed available each round going forward.

"I think as a high seed, you want reseeding as much as possible," Coleman said, "and you want to be rewarded for the work that's done during the regular season."

Coleman remained in Tampa for five to six weeks after the pause before re-locating to Dallas with his wife and newborn baby girl to be closer to his family (he was born in the Dallas suburb of Plano). He said his plan is to drive back to Tampa this week so that he can join his teammates for the start of Phase 2 of the League's Return to Play plan. He hasn't skated since the pause because rinks nationwide have been shut down. But he's been on the bike every day and focusing on off-ice training so he's ready to go once he laces up the skates for the first time.

"There's an option to skate here in Dallas, but for me it's about being comfortable in the environment and being around my teammates and keep building that rapport with them," Coleman said about returning to Tampa. "Right now our plan is tentatively to head back next week, keeping an eye on storms and things like that that are messing up our travel plans a little bit. I think based off the quarantine restrictions and all of that, we're looking to drive just to avoid having to do the 14-day stay at home."

Coleman scored 21 goals for New Jersey before the trade, one off his career high of 22 set the previous season and the second-straight season he tallied 20 or more goals. With the Lightning, Coleman was still finding his groove and searching for that first shot to hit the back of the net. He registered just one assist in nine games but proved extremely valuable on the penalty kill paired up top with fellow newcomer Barclay Goodrow and displayed a relentless, puck-hounding style of play that meshed well with the Lightning roster.

"I think I have a lot more to give than how I started my first nine games now," Coleman said. "I'm excited to have that opportunity to show some more."