Brett Hull played with a bunch of superstars and skilled players throughout his NHL career.
Some of them were fast skaters, some great tacklers and some great when it came to shooting. One of them, Swede superstar Kent Nilsson surely taught him how to shoot. Or at least that you never should bet against him.
In his book “Brett: His Own Story”, Hull tells the story of when Kent Nilsson made him and hit brothers a bet while his father Bobby played for the Winnipeg Jets.
“Kent Nilsson, who came to the Jets in 1977-78, gave me a few lessons about shooting accuracy. They called him “Magic”. After lining up 10 pucks at center ice, he would turn to Bobby Jr, Blake and me and say ‘I’ll bet you boys five dollars that I can hit the crossbar seven times’,” Hull writes.
Brett Hull had made up his mind. No way that this Swedish player could do such a thing, and he called it. But he got owned just a couple of minutes later.
“We would shake our heads in disbelief, and Nilsson would proceed to clang the bar eight or nine times. When he was done, he would stand there holding out his hand,” Brett Hull writes.
Kent Nilsson represented the Jets during the 1977-78 and 1978-79 season, putting up 214 points in 158 games.
He’s regarded as one of the greatest Swedish players ever playing in the NHL.
And if there was someone who learned that Nilsson was pretty special, it was Brett Hull the day he made a bet against “Magic”.
Make sure to follow The Hockey Beast on Instagram!
