Thrashers, Coburn, and You

Who's Here?

Syndication

Written by Ryan

Friday, 29 January 2010 08:26

If you would like a recap of last night's game please go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here.

If you want to hear about how I had a dream that Peter Laviolette was pitching a slow pitch wiffle softball game and was being a real dick, throwing about 95 miles an hour while repeatedly demonstrating karate moves on the mound, then stay tuned.

Every time we play the Thrashers I get a kick out of watching Alexi Zhitnik labor around the ice as Flyers skate around him on their way to excellent offensive chances. Borat not. In reality, every time we play the Thrashers I wonder how their GM Don Waddell has a job. The Zhitnik and 4 playoff games for first rounder Braydon Coburn is just one example of how he's mismanaged a franchise that is struggling to survive in a division that is the laughing stock of the leaugue. Hossa to Pittsburgh for a bar stool signed by Mario Lemieux would be another. The impending Kovalchuk to Vancouver for Tanner Glass and Shane O'Brien will be the next. And a lot of you are probably rolling your eyes, thinking about how much Braydon Coburn sucks, but the only thing he's really guilty of is playing too well during 2007-08.

If you're an athlete in Philadelphia and you have a great season you better be careful. There's this Calvin and Hobbes strip I'm always reminded of in which Calvin is explaining to Hobbes why he always starts the year with D's and F's on purpose so that his end of the year C's are objects for praise. Set the bar low and the soar over it - it's true in Philly. To a certain extent Philly fans will put up with a developing player, especially in hockey where most seem to know less about another team's first round pick than say football or basketball. "So this Coburn kid was picked in the first round by Atlanta...wonder if he's going to be any good...think he's from Portland or something?" But if you get the home crowd's hopes up and then begin to settle a bit the following years you are doomed.

In 2006-07 Coburn came in and had 7 points in 20 games but I doubt anyone really noticed as they were to busy puking into paper bags with two holes cut out for the eyes. In 2007-08, when Philadelphia got caught up in a great regular season after some serious roster jiggling, everyone took notice of the big, young defenseman who scored 36 points as a 22 year old. He was also plus 17. We had the next Pronger. But then last year both stats dropped off and then this year it looks like more of the same, and Coburn will be lucky to see a positive plus minus rating. But I implore you Philly fans to show patience - Rome wasn't built in a day and all the butt fucking that happened there surely wasn't done in a day. They both took time.

What we have on our hands is a defenseman who will turn 25 next month. He might be the best skater on the Flyers. He's getting tougher. He's learning his game. And he's not really losing the Stanley Cup for the Flyers while doing it. Giveaways, getting beat, occasionally making bad decisions - these things happen to all d-men. But in a salary cap era one of the main tools we all use, right or wrong, to measure performance is play relative to salary, as every dollar a player makes means less money for his organization to try and make the team better in other ways. And Coburn is a steal at $1.4M. We all gave Randy Jones the business because of his huge salary, even though making a ton of money is never the player's "fault." But Coburn will be up for contract negotiation this summer as an RFA and we have him in the perfect position. He hasn't performed as expected, but still as been decent, and that will hopefully impact his bottom line. Because this is a kid that has 10 years, a full decade, to develop into the Chris Pronger we want him to be and sign that 7 year $7M contract. I just hope he develops into that kind of player in the Orange and Black.

Oh yeah, Laviolette refused to throw underhand and was beaning almost every batter with a giant red wiffle ball. And every time you tried to shout out to him to cool it he got in a threatening karate stance. It was not a fun dream or fun time. So there's that.