Top 10 Canucks fights of all time: #2 – Craig Coxe vs. Bob Probert

Originally posted on Canucksarmy | By Tyson Cole | Last updated Aug 19, 2025 11:00 AM ET

Welcome to our top 10 Vancouver Canucks fights of all time. With our friends from HockeyFights.com, our 2nd Canucks fight of all time is the fight between Craig Coxe vs. Bob Probert.

Earlier in the summer, we covered our top 5 Vancouver Canucks fights of the 2024-2025 season. You can rewatch all of these fights here:

#5 – Dakota Joshua vs. Brady Tkachuk
#4 – JT Miller vs. Anthony Mantha
#3 – Dakota Joshua vs. Michael McCarron
#2 – Elias Pettersson vs. Logan O’Connor
#1 – Conor Garland vs. Erik Haula

On November 11, 1985, the Vancouver Canucks welcomed the Detroit Red Wings to town, and boy, did this one get off to a spicy start.

Red Wings defenceman John Barrett took an elbowing penalty two minutes into the game. Steve Tambellini made them pay, as he buried one in the back of the net just past the three-minute mark of the game.

Then, one of the toughest players in NHL history, Bob Probert, decided to take matters into his own hands.

Just 3:47 into the first period, Probert dropped the gloves with Coxe.

The two meet at the top of the faceoff circle in the Red Wings’ zone, where it appears Coxe gets the better of him early on, connecting with some solid punches while Probert attempts to re-find his balance in the fight. Once he does, then the two skaters begin exchanging hardcore blows, with Coxe looking to connect more on his.

As Probert directs Coxe to the corner of the rink, Coxe is able to land a few upper-cuts on Probert, who ducks to avoid the punches. Once in the corner, Coxe continues to send a flurry of punches to Probert’s face. However, throwing so many punches appears to be catching up to Coxe, as his volume starts slowing down, which allows Probert to attack.

After taking a few more punches from Coxe, Probert starts swinging for the fences and connects with a handful of rights, knocking Coxe back against the boards. The two keep swinging, but it doesn’t appear that Coxe lands many, opening the door for Porbert to take the upper hand in this fight.

Coxe and Probert move off the boards, throwing big punches before one of Probert’s punches knocks Coxe off balance, and he falls to the ice. It wasn’t a punch that injured Coxe; however, the two didn’t separate easily. Three referees had to jump on the pile to separate the two.

Both players were given fighting majors and a 10-minute misconduct for their actions in the fight. The Canucks went on to score two more goals in the first period and walked away with the 5-0 victory at the end of the night. The rough stuff continued in this match, as the two teams combined for 86 penalty minutes.

HockeyFights voters gave this fight a 9.5/10 and favoured Probert, who earned 70% of the 129 votes. Coxe received just 11% of the votes, with the draw earning 19%.

Which, if you ask this author, seems too lopsided after watching this fight.

Our previously ranked top 10 Canucks fights of all time:

HM – Rick Rypien vs. Hal Gill
#10 – Scott Walker vs. Dody Wood
#9 – Rick Rypien vs. Brandon Prust
#8 – Scott Walker vs. Scott Daniels
#7 – Alek Stojanov vs. Kelly Chase
#6 – Ron Delorme vs. Jamie Macoun
#5 – Rick Rypien vs. Cam Janssen
#4 – Scott Walker vs. Mike Keane
#3 – Ed Jovanovski vs. Adam Deadmarsh