Geoff Kirbyson - The Hot Line: How the Legendary Trio of Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson Transformed Hockey and Led the Winnipeg Jets to Greatness

The Hot Line

The Hot Line

How the Legendary Trio of Hull, Hedberg
and Nilsson Transformed Hockey and
Led the Winnipeg Jets to Greatness

Geoff Kirbyson

Foreword by Glen Sather

Copyright 2016 Geoff Kirbyson

Great Plains Publications

233 Garfield Street

Winnipeg, MB R3G 2M1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or in any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Great Plains Publications, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5E 1E5.

Great Plains Publications gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for its publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund; the Canada Council for the Arts; the Province of Manitoba through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Book Publisher Marketing Assistance Program; and the Manitoba Arts Council.

Design & Typography by Relish New Brand Experience

Printed in Canada by Friesens

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Kirbyson, Geoff, 1968-, author

The Hot Line : how the legendary trio of Hull, Hedberg

and Nilsson transformed hockey and led the Winnipeg Jets to

greatness / Geoff Kirbyson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-927855-65-2 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-927855-67-6 (mobi).--ISBN 978-1-927855-66-9 (epub)

1. Hull, Bobby, 1939-. 2. Hedberg, Anders, 1951-. 3. Nilsson,

Ulf, 1950-. 4. Hockey players--Manitoba--Winnipeg--Biography.

5. Winnipeg Jets (Hockey team : 1972-1996)--History. I. Title.

GV848.W56K57 2016 796.9620922712743 C2016-905994-4

C2016-905995-2

Dedications and Acknowledgements

In July, 2012, my editor at the Winnipeg Free Press, Margo Goodhand, asked me if Id like to go to Sweden to write a few stories from lmhult, home to IKEA, before the furniture giant opened its first store in Winnipeg a few months later. I said yes! before shed finished her sentence.

Sure, my assignment was to inform our readers about IKEAs philosophy, business strategy, quality control and how they came up with the crazy names for their furniture, but somehow the ongoing theme during my trip became the Winnipeg Jets.

On my first day there, I was asked by a trio of Swedes where I was from. When I replied, Winnipeg, the first guy responded with, Ah, Anders Hedberg.

What?

The guy beside him then said, Ulf Nilsson and then the third guy said, Bobby Hull, Lars-Erik Sjoberg.

Hang on a second, I interjected. These guys havent played hockey in Winnipeg in more than three decades. What are you talking about?

Well, thats how we know Winnipeg, from the Swedes who played there, the first Swede answered. The trio proceeded to rhyme off every Swede who ever suited up for the Winnipeg Jets 1.0 and 2.0.

Coincidentally, I was reading The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association by Ed Willes (for the second time) during the plane ride over. When I got back to my hotel room after chatting with the three Swedes, I flipped through to the chapter on the wave of Europeans who signed with the Jets in the fall of 1974. Willes described them as forming the nucleus of the best WHA team ever. He also said, You can argue whether the Hull-Hedberg-Nilsson linethe Hot Linewas the best line in the games history, but they were inarguably the most influential.

He cited their on-ice magic, the marrying of the best of the North American and European games with an emphasis on puck possession, not dumping and chasing, and interchanging lanes, plus their off-ice impact of blowing open the pipeline of Swedes and Finns, and later eastern Europeans, to come to North America.

When I got back from my trip, I called up Gregg Shilliday, publisher of Great Plains Publications, told him Id just read the book on the WHA and now Id like to read the book on the Hot Line, you know, what with them being the most influential line in the history of hockey.

Um, far as I know, it hasnt been written yet. Do you want to write it? he asked me. I said yes before hed finished his sentence.

The logical place to start was with Don Baizley, the Winnipeg-based lawyer who represented Hedberg and Nilsson and so many of the Europeans who played here, including Teemu Selanne.

He was skeptical about my ability to finish such a project so long after it had all taken place, particularly since a number of the key participants, including Dr. Gerry Wilson, the Jets team doctor and executive, Billy Robinson, the teams director of player personnel, Rudy Pilous, the general manager, and Bobby Kromm, one of the head coaches, had all died in the previous few years.

I persisted and Baiz, who I knew better as the father of Marnie, three-time Canadian squash championwho I insisted my kids, Mia and Alex, both members of the provincial squash team, watch play whenever they couldrelented and agreed to help me get started. He wasnt feeling great, as he was battling non-smokers lung cancer, but he invited me to his office at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman to have a chatif you can call a 90-minute conversation covering the most minute details of Hedberg and Nilssons time in Winnipeg a chat.

That was the first of more than 125 interviews I did with former teammates and opponents of Hedberg, Nilsson and Hull, coaches, executives and referees from around the WHA, journalists, current NHL players and even a few of their Winnipeg friends, to find out what made them so influential.

Only one person who I got in touch with refused to talk about them. Curiously, it was Curt Larsson, the Swedish goaltender who joined Hedberg, Nilsson and Lars-Erik Sjoberg in Winnipeg in 1974, who hung up on me.

Baiz never got to see even a draft of The Hot Line: How the Legendary Trio of Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson Transformed Hockey and Led the Winnipeg Jets to Greatness because he passed away the following summer.

So, hes the first person Id like to dedicate this book to. (Considering the crucial role he played with Hedberg and Nilsson coming here in the first place and then leaving four years later, he probably deserved his own chapter but Im sure he would have been embarrassed if Id suggested it. Instead, Ive sprinkled stories from and about Baiz throughout the book.)

Id also like to dedicate this book to Mia and Alex, who have given me countless hours of pride and enjoyment watching them on the field of play, whether its squash, tennis, hockey or baseball, and in life as theyve grown into the two fine young people theyve become today.

Finally, to my mom, Dawn, my dad, Ron, and my late grandparents, Bill and Jean Kirbyson, who taught me right from wrong, how to tie my own skates and tape a stick, the importance of good sportsmanship, and who took me to all those Jets games, including a bunch of international ones, when I was a kid. I dont remember any specific plays by the Hot Line, just the excitement level that filled the Winnipeg Arena every time they hopped over the boards.