Texas Forever: Blake Coleman and Stefan Noesen share a Lone Star bond

Playing pond hockey is a rite of passage for many hockey players.

Blake Coleman and Stefan Noesen are two exceptions, because of one geographic reason. Both were born and raised in Plano, Texas, just northeast of Dallas.

For the pair of future New Jersey Devils forwards, the street was home when it came to playing puck.

“I played in front of my house every day,” Coleman remembered. “The whole neighborhood came out and we had to move the nets every time a car came down. We had a blast and were out there for hours at a time.”

Reminisced Noesen: “There were some kids down the street from me who were really into road hockey. They were 8 and 9 years old — I was only 4 — and they always asked me if I wanted to play. At first I sat on the street and watched them. My mom (Jamie) hesitated whenever I asked her. Finally, I picked up a stick, put on rollerblades and started played with them.”

Coleman revealed that there was one ice rink within an hour’s drive of Plano when he was growing up. “My parents (Rusty and Sandy) drove me an hour to practice every day until I was 14,” he said.

Meanwhile, Noesen’s dad, Glen, showed him the ice-skating ropes as a kid. “Apparently I was good at skating,” Noesen joked. “I don’t think I am now, but back then I was!”

Noesen, 24, and Coleman, who turns 26 on Nov. 28, are forever grateful for their parents’ assistance in their hockey efforts, but both credit family members higher up the tree for fostering their love for the sport.

In Noesen’s case, the person responsible was his great grandpa, whom his family called “B.B.”

“From what I’ve been told, he was Canadian,” the right wing said of B.B. “I don’t really know. But he wanted somebody in his family to play hockey, so when I was 2 years old I watched games with him in Texas. He taught me the motions of it in his living room.”

Coleman’s affection for hockey started at the Dallas Stars’ old home rink, Reunion Arena, where he watched games with his grandma, Marie Hoffman, who bought season tickets when the Stars arrived in 1993.

“Nobody wanted to go, so she took the baby,” Coleman said. “The Stars started to get good in the late 1990s, including two runs to the Stanley Cup Finals. I didn’t miss many games. When a team is good, it’s exciting to be around, and it made me want to skate and drove my passion.”

The first of those trips to the finals concluded with the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship in 1999. In fact, Noesen still remembers where he was when Brett Hull scored the Cup-clinching goal in Buffalo against the Sabres in triple overtime of Game 6.

“I was at a family friend of ours’ high school baseball game,” Noesen recalled. “After that we decided to go somewhere to watch the end of the Stars’ game, which was going into overtime. We ended up going to Chili’s. When they scored, the place went nuts.”

The ending was especially memorable for Noesen, who enjoyed watching Hull as a kid. Two other players who seized his attention were Ed Belfour and Mike Modano.

“Every Texas kid who ever played hockey idolized Modano,” Noesen matter-of-factly stated.

The title was equally special for Coleman since the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for Most Valuable Player of the playoffs was his favorite player, Cornell legend Joe Nieuwendyk.

Coleman also kept an eye on Modano, “the obvious one,” and Pat Verbeek, who started his career with New Jersey.

“Verbeek was a little terrorizer,” Coleman chuckled.

With renewed passion after watching their beloved Stars reach the hockey summit, Noesen and Coleman continued to chase the dream of one day winning a coveted Cup championship of their own.

Both forwards skated together for the first time with the Dallas Junior Hockey Association Penguins before advancing to another organization, the Alliance Bulldogs. Coleman competed with them for six years and then moved to Michigan for

his freshman year of high school. After one season, he returned home to play two seasons for the Dallas Stars Elite Midget Major program.

As for Noesen, he was “kicked off” the Bulldogs soon after joining them, separating him from Coleman.

“Blake is two years older than me and I was playing up when I was younger,” Noesen explained. “Eventually I needed to play with my own age group or a team one year older.”

Noesen continued playing in Dallas, with his final stop coming with the Ice Jets, until he moved to Michigan in 2007 to suit up for the Detroit Compuware organization and later the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers. Coleman eventually took his talents to the United States Hockey League in 2009, first with the Tri-City Storm and later the Indiana Ice.

The two were once again linked at the 2011 National Hockey League Draft; Noesen was taken 21st overall by the Ottawa Senators and Coleman was selected 75th overall by the Devils.

In fact, the pick the Devils used to pluck Coleman originated from the Stars, who sent the selection to New Jersey in exchange for Jamie Langenbrunner in a January 2011 trade. Langenbrunner, who started his professional career with the Stars and was a member of their 1999 championship team, was dealt with Nieuwendyk in March 2002 to the Devils in exchange for Randy McKay and Jason Arnott, who scored the Cup-clinching goal for New Jersey in 2000 against Dallas. Both Langenbrunner and Nieuwendyk won another Cup with the Devils in 2003.

The moment wasn’t lost on Coleman.

“I was at the draft and the pick on the board showed where it came from, so it had the Stars’ logo next to it,” he said. “I have a photo of it on my phone. I thought, ‘That’s pretty ironic. If I can’t go to my hometown team, the pick is from them.’ Plus, Jamie was a guy who spent time with both organizations and I admired his game when I was growing up. It’s always cool when you can tie your roots to where you are.”

Speaking of roots, the draft took place at Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, in the state where the North Stars were born in 1967 before relocating to Dallas and dropping “North” from its name in 1993.

“The draft would’ve been special anywhere, but the location is just another thing that ties it all together,” Coleman said. Added Noesen: “It’s cool to realize our dreams came true where the Stars started.”

Following the draft, Noesen continued to ply his craft for two more years with Plymouth. After his junior career concluded in 2013, he was traded by Ottawa to the Anaheim Ducks.

After becoming Devils’ property, Coleman headed to Miami University (Ohio), where he skated for four seasons before joining New Jersey’s American Hockey League affiliate in Albany for the 2015-16 season.

That’s where the center opened the 2016-17 campaign, until Jan. 12 when he made his NHL debut in Edmonton against the Oilers. Two games later it looked as though he had tallied his first NHL goal and point at the Vancouver Canucks, but the marker was disallowed after it was ruled the Devils entered the offensive zone offside.

The nullification proved to be fateful in adding to Coleman’s running Dallas-Minnesota narrative.

First, Coleman checked off his NHL points’ column at the Wild with an assist in the next contest.

“Minnesota is starting to hold a special place in my heart,” he acknowledged.

Then on March 26 when the Stars visited Prudential Center, Coleman scored his first NHL goal against his hometown team.

“I’m familiar with a lot of guys in their locker room, so guys such as Jamie Benn coming up and congratulating me is special,” Coleman said.

In between his two major-league scoring milestones, Coleman also spent time with Albany. But it didn’t mean New Jersey didn’t have a Plano native on its roster.

In fact, the Devils doubled the amount of Texans in their organization after they claimed Noesen off waivers from Anaheim on Jan. 25. He scored a goal in each of his first two games with New Jersey.

On Feb. 27 against the Montreal Canadiens, Coleman was promoted from the A-Devils and once again competed as a teammate of Noesen’s.

Coleman finished the season with two points (1-1-2) in 23 NHL games, while Noesen, in 32 games with the Devils, totaled eight points (6-2-8).

The duo opened the 2017-18 campaign on the same line, but not before they made a return trek to the Lone Star State during the summer. Coleman did as he has always done and trained in Dallas. Noesen, who no longer trains in Texas, still visits family and friends during the offseason.

However, both players may have one additional stop on their dockets next June after the NHL announced earlier this year that Dallas and the Stars’ arena, the American Airlines Center, will host the 2018 draft, a tribute to a region that has embraced the ice game.

“Hockey’s become a part of the culture in Dallas,” Coleman said. “The game’s grown and, just being around the Stars’ rink this past summer, everyone there is really excited for that to come to Dallas. I’m sure I’ll be kicking around somewhere; maybe I’ll stop in just to see what it’s all about.”

Noesen is also pondering a visit to the draft. “Maybe I’ll ask (Devils general manager Ray Shero) if I can go down there for it,” Noesen said. “It’ll be a cool event. The arena and the surrounding area, Victory Park, are beautiful. To have a big event like that take place there is awesome.”

And maybe there will be street hockey games featuring the next generation of Texas hockey stars taking place during the festivities, too.

Devils Notes

In New Jersey’s opener on Oct. 7 vs. Colorado, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Will Butcher made their NHL/Devils’ debuts, and Marcus Johansson, Drew Stafford, Jimmy Hayes, Brian Gibbons and Mirco Mueller made their Devils’ debuts. Butcher recorded three assists and became the first player in Devils’ franchise history to record three points in his NHL debut and just the fifth defenseman on any team to do so in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68). Hayes, who signed a one-year contract on Oct. 1, scored the gamewinning goal, his first point as a Devil.

Bratt, who recorded a goal for his first NHL point and also an assist against the Avalanche, added two goals and an assist two days later at Buffalo and became the first player in Devils’ franchise history to record five points through his first two NHL matches and just the fifth player on any team to do so in the past 17 seasons.

Also against the Sabres, Gibbons, Hischier, Johansson and Mueller recorded assists for their first points as a Devil. Hischier’s helper was his first NHL point, and Johansson later scored his first two goals with New Jersey.

On Oct. 11 at Toronto, Gibbons scored the first regular-season 3-on-5 shorthanded goal in Devils’ history. …

Kyle Palmieri (Montvale, N.J.) scored his 100th NHL goal on Oct. 13 vs. Washington. The next night at the Rangers, Stafford recorded his first goal and point as a Devil, and Butcher tallied two assists to become the first rookie defenseman in NHL history to record at least eight assists in his first five NHL games. He also became the fourth rookie blueliner in the 100-year history of the NHL — and second in the modern era (since 1943-44) — to notch at least eight points in his first five career games.