Article in The Athletic with some interesting WHA Jets hockey history, not sure where else to post it. Some excerpts:
theathletic.com
Rogers believes the line of Nilsson-Hedberg-Hull wasn’t just dominant in the WHA but might have been the best line in all of hockey.
“But people didn’t see it that way,” Rogers says. “They thought, ‘It’s just the WHA’ and ‘Bobby’s getting on in years.’ But the numbers they put up and the way they dominated games, was special.”
And in Garrett’s mind, the WHA Jets eventually became the model for the NHL Oilers and the dynasty that Glen Sather built, which produced five Stanley Cup championships in a seven-year span from 1984 to 1990.
“I think that’s where Glen Sather got the idea to play Paul Coffey with Gretzky all the time and he’s going to be like a fourth forward,” Garrett says. “Because that’s what Winnipeg did with Nilsson, Hull and Hedberg, they had Lars-Erik Sjoberg with them. We used to call it the Winnipeg weave because there was absolutely no dump-and-chase. They’d just circle around and pass and pass and pass and then enter the zone in control.
“We played them in the playoffs one year when I was in Birmingham. That was the year they won the Avco Cup and only lost one game in the playoffs. And they lost it to us. I was so proud of that win because that Winnipeg team could have competed in the NHL right then and there.”
Gordie Howe, Fighting Saints and beer-soaked meal money: How the WHA changed the NHL for the better
Big stars, big contracts and big brawls (and some innovative hockey) from the 1970s upstart league helped usher in change in the NHL.
theathletic.com
Rogers believes the line of Nilsson-Hedberg-Hull wasn’t just dominant in the WHA but might have been the best line in all of hockey.
“But people didn’t see it that way,” Rogers says. “They thought, ‘It’s just the WHA’ and ‘Bobby’s getting on in years.’ But the numbers they put up and the way they dominated games, was special.”
And in Garrett’s mind, the WHA Jets eventually became the model for the NHL Oilers and the dynasty that Glen Sather built, which produced five Stanley Cup championships in a seven-year span from 1984 to 1990.
“I think that’s where Glen Sather got the idea to play Paul Coffey with Gretzky all the time and he’s going to be like a fourth forward,” Garrett says. “Because that’s what Winnipeg did with Nilsson, Hull and Hedberg, they had Lars-Erik Sjoberg with them. We used to call it the Winnipeg weave because there was absolutely no dump-and-chase. They’d just circle around and pass and pass and pass and then enter the zone in control.
“We played them in the playoffs one year when I was in Birmingham. That was the year they won the Avco Cup and only lost one game in the playoffs. And they lost it to us. I was so proud of that win because that Winnipeg team could have competed in the NHL right then and there.”
