Braydon Coburn is listed at 6'5 220 lbs on the Flyers website. That's a big guy. So why can't he fight at all? And why if he can't fight does he keep taking on guys who can?
When I first saw a Braydon Coburn fight I felt nothing but pity for him. It was during his rookie season in Atlanta and he, for some reason, thought it might be fun to test Mike Rupp. And boom goes the dynamite.
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Honestly, what was the point of that?
And then last night he seems to be doing ok with Owen Nolan until Nolan switches to his left and Coburn offers his head up on a platter in a misguided attempt to get away from the punches.
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Now Chris Pronger's supposed to come in here and teach our younger defensemen a thing or two about hockey. I know Coburn's probably feeling a little left out now that Pronger's making Matt Carle into the next Bobby Orr (San Fillipo's words, not mine), but he should probably walk up to him and say "Chris what do I do when somebody wants to fight me?" And Chris Pronger could say "I've only been in 20 fights in my 15 year career. There are other ways to be tough. Like setting the table wrong and making your guests deal with it - it's called psychological warfare."
And if Coburn didn't like that answer he could consult at least one of the other Flyers who was in the top ten in fighting majors last year. Watching his fights it seems like his thought process stops after "drop gloves" and then he just wants to get to the box. Even in the one fight he's won in the NHL, against Ryan Malone, you can see that he is so excited when it's over that he grabs Ryan Malone's butt and immediately wants to talk to him about it:
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Can't wait to here about his latest bout in his training camp blog. Should be a good one. Maybe while he's writing about it he can attempt to explain to me why right when he gets felled two guys in Flyers jersys, about 3 rows above the "S" in "State Farm" on the boards, hug passionately. Yeah, watch the Coburn-Nolan fight again, it's worth it.