Jon Coleman made an immediate impact in his Blaze debut, helping his new team to a 4-2 win against the Devils.
With Swedish blueliner Matt Soderstrom sidelined with a Stomach injury, the former Detroit Red Wings draft pick was brought in to provide cover during the festive schedule.
And Blaze coach Paul Thompson has been impressed by the incoming D-man.
“He can make a pass and his positioning is very good," Thompson said in an interview with skysports.com.
"What he gives us at the back is that experience because we’re quite young on defence. Soderstrom is our most experience defenceman and our most defensive defenceman and he’s out of the line-up."
Soderstrom will have surgery on Wednesday to repair a hernia and is expected to be out for a month. Coleman’s arrival will ease the pressure on the Swede to return to the active roster, allowing him the time to fully recover.
Coleman, 33, has played in several leagues in Europe and could well return to the continent for the second half of the season.
“He’s only signed a contract here until January,” Thompson added.
“I think he was waiting for a bigger offer to come through from Europe and this gives him an opportunity to start playing again and get into some game shape.”
Thompson compared Coleman to former Blaze defenceman Reid Simonton, who was a key part of the league-winning side in 2006/07.
“He reminds me of Reid because he’s very cool and calm on the puck, very smooth,” Thompson said.
“Coleman brings us that leadership and experience, even in his first game the comments that he was making on the bench were all positive. He was supporting guys and talking to them – he’s a 13 year veteran who has played at the highest levels.”
Paul Thompson is ready for the busiest month in his career as he begins his mission to take the national side to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
With Olympic qualification on the line, the Blaze competing for their third straight Elite League title and also entering European club competition later this month, Thompson has a hectic November schedule.And in an interview with skysports.com, Thompson revealed just how busy he is.
“It’s ridiculous – I keep having to look up at the scoreboard to see who we’re playing in all of these different competitions!” Thompson joked.
“It is an awfully busy time and a draining time, but it’s an exciting time and I’m looking forward to our first game.”
Team GB's first game is against Poland, who won the last meeting between the teams at the World Championships in April after a penalty shootout.
“I’ve been speaking to my assistant coaches on a daily basis,” Thompson said.
“For the last couple of weeks we’ve been discussing how we are going to put the lines together and work on our powerplays and penalty killing to get the right balance.”
With so much administrative work required this month in addition to the actual games, Thompson praised the work of Andy Buxton, who is the general manager of the GB senior men’s team.
“I’m grateful to have a guy like Andy to help me out because he does a lot of work and takes care of many of the problems and issues that come up,” Thompson added.
“While I do a lot of admin work for the Blaze, Andy does a lot of the admin for the national team and it would be very difficult to get it all done without him.”
Buxton believes that allowing Thompson to concentrate on winning games and not have to worry about paperwork will enable the team to perform better in Poland.
“We have a good off-ice team and we try to take away all the worries and concerns from the coaching staff and players,” Buxton told skysports.com.
“If we can do the best job that we can to take care of everything off the ice, all Paul has to worry about is his team and trying to win the game.”
