A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future. –BF Skinner
One of the more entertaining moments from last night's Flyers win came in the third period (OK, just about all of the entertaining moments came in the third), when Braydon Coburn deskated 18-year-old Hurricanes rookie Jeff Skinner twice in one shift. Coburn took Skinner off the puck and out of a rush into the Flyers zone, and Skinner didn't take too kindly to it, trying twice to hit Coburn and ultimately earning a solo trip to the box when the first attempt resulted in him on his back again. Video of the hits, Skinner's attempt to retaliate, and his potty mouth reaction when the refs send him off, below...
Give Coburn credit there for taking Skinner out of a rush with a nice clean leveling (and mmmaybe a bit of a bitch slap on the way down), but also for getting him off the ice for 2 minutes in the third period when the Hurricanes were down a goal by getting under his skin without doing enough to get whistled himself. The refs could see that Skinner was agitated and had lost his composure. He was trying to settle up with Coburn for the first blue line hit for the rest of the shift, and after the second time they came together ended the same as the first, Skinner let his rat out of the cage.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Skinner is second to only Eric Staal in scoring for Carolina, but rather than getting on the scoresheet, he was one of three frustrated Hurricanes to visit the box in the final frame. Down a goal, that was a bad penalty to take, and Coburn played the rookie right into it.
AP photo; thanks to MrFlyerGuy for the clip.