Playfair vs Nilan all 5 fights!

[Stan Jonathan#1]

This was a great rivalry between one of the biggest, toughest and hardest punchers in NHL history ranked very very high in many circles vs a great fighter that knew how to fight and often made you fight his fight. I DESPISED Nilan but gave him a lot of credit. You can make a great case that Nilan won or held these own in these fights. He lost one badly but did win a few too. Not the best quality but this is all there is. This series was very close.

YouTube - Larry Playfair vs Chris Nilan - ROUND 1

YouTube - Larry Playfair vs Chris Nilan - ROUND 2

YouTube - Larry Playfair vs Chris Nilan - ROUND 3...

YouTube - Larry Playfair vs Chris Nilan - ROUND 4

YouTube - Larry Playfair vs Chris Nilan - ROUND 5

[srehm1]

I'm certain they fought more than 5 times, but this is a good example of what Nilan was capable of. I always thought Nilan was great at containing some of the big guns in the NHL. Guys like Playfair and Brown were big, physical fighters who liked to get off quick and get a fast start. Nilan was great at shutting down that fast start and turning it into a longer fight. I was always impressed at how well Nilan could take away your strength. Big lefty - no problem. Big righty - no problem. Nilan was a smaller HW and relied on being much more technically sound to survive. He could throw with both hands, had good stamina, a good chin (although his style meant few big shots to the face), a definite mean streak, and he could be cheap when he wanted to be.

I grew up a Boston Bruins fan and absolutely despised Nilan. I don't care if he was from West Roxbury - I felt no kinship at all with him. I thought he was a punk who played the part of a cheap prick and he was a wise a$$ in the press and always fanned the flames of the Boston-Montreal rivalry. I thought he was public enemy #1 after he butt-ended Middleton in the face for no reason. I thought he was a punk for suckering a non fighter like Paul Boutilierre(sp) and starting a bench clearing brawl. I hated it when Shayne Corson reopened Cam Neely's stitches in a fight and Nilan gushed over it like it was Corson who actually did the damage. Fukking punk. When he spoke on newscasts he sounded like your typical Boston wannabe tough guy.

A lot of this was just my teenage angst pouring through during those heated games against the Habs. I felt the rivalry and hated guys like Lemeiux, Charbonneau(sp), Chelios, Nilan, Svoboda - all because they wore the bleu, blanc, et rouge. I've grown out of that since then. Although I still carry a healthy dislike of Nilan, I can see that he really was a great fighter. As far as his fight card goes, he has one of the best. He takes hits for his style which wasn't the most exciting at times and I'm sure we'll hear about how he had little power as well. He had this way of containing a fighter then finding openings to exploit. He was great against Brown. I'll never forget that two fight game against Brown. In the first fight, Brown, typically, got the jump on Nilan and won in a quick fight. Nilan came back later and did a great job of tying up Brown's left and then landing lefts of his own. Most straight up southpaws stood no chance against Brown, but here was Nilan, an undersized HW and a right hander to boot, and he decisions Brown using lefts!

Nilan was only beaten clearly a few times from the footage I've seen. Wilson tapped a drum beat on Nilan's face, Playfair beat him clearly - I also believe battleship25 mentioned another clear cut Playfair win over Nilan, Brown, McKenzie, the Adams TKO, O'Reilly early in his career - not many clear losses for a guy who fought over 300 times. His technical style allowed him to hang with the big boys. It's funny but Nilan was part of a new wave of tough guys in the NHL. With Nilan, Hunter, McSorley - you had smaller, more adaptable fighters who didn't rely so much on size or pure strength and power. They also began to stretch fights out and force some of these 70's greats to go for the long haul. I used to really like the matchups between the bigger physical fighters and the smaller, technically savvy guys. Hunter-Semenko, Nilan-Playfair, Nilan-Brown, McSorley-Gillies, etc. Great brains vs. brawn matchups.

I perused DYG and saw a few fights with Wilson that I would love to find out about. Wilson's uppercut attack would be particularly tough to deal with for Nilan who loved to put his head down and bury it into your chest. In the one fight of theirs that I do have, it seemed like every time Nilan put his head down, Wilson popped it back up again. You didn't see Nilan handled like that too often in his career.

Great thread. Thanks.

[Schultz]

I agree with you Srehm, Nilan was a punk on and off the ice. He's been involved in many public scuffles and they never make the paper. Some day I'll tell you about a huge incident that involved Nilan and my friends son. I heard that Fotiu once pounded him for being an A-hole during a benefit game years ago. It was supposed to be a non-hitting affair but dickhead Nilan was buring people into the boards.

[FitzG]

Perfect I could have wrote it I just can't warm up to this guy.


I grew up a Boston Bruins team fan and absolutely despised Nilan. I don't care if he was from West Roxbury - I felt no kinship at all with him. I thought he was a punk who played the part of a cheap prick and he was a wise a$$ in the press and always fanned the flames of the Boston-Montreal rivalry. I thought he was public enemy #1 after he butt-ended Middleton in the face for no reason. I thought he was a punk for suckering a non fighter like player Paul Boutilier player and starting a bench clearing brawl. I hated it when Shayne Corson player reopened player Cam Neely player 's stitches in a fight and Nilan gushed over it like it was Corson who actually did the damage. Fukking punk. When he spoke on newscasts he sounded like your typical Boston wannabe tough guy.
.[/quote]

[bzane]

Stanley-

Very nice clips, thank you.

[brad houghton]

SJ#1.... dare i say......really nice thread.....good vids....and....you are being objective about a guy you hate....well done lad

srehm1 really outstanding post......one of you best.....you give us non Bostonian's some inside dirt.....and despite your youthful hate you manage to be objective...really solid

i am like the rest so far on this thread... i hated the habs and therefore hated Nilan.....he was a smoothering fighter and tended to impose his style....probably under rated on this site due to the fact that he seems to rub almost everyone the wrong way

i have always found it interesting that every guy from the Boston area seemed to really hate Nilan.....i think it goes past the Habs thing and i was always struck by the genuine dislike....not just a fad he seems to remind guys in Boston of "that guy in Boston they really hate"

i use to always want to see someone really knock his lights out but like Tim Hunter these two really new how to minimize damage. given the era Nilan fought in and the size of guys he fought that is really impressive

i remember watching the game on Hockey night in Canada when Nilan broke into the league and O'Reilly bloodied him.....i thought....this kid is never going to make it .....also i am mad because i didn't know then what i know now about Nilan and it robbed me the chance to celebrate his bloody face.....i just thought he was some rookie......do over Taz???

i think it was 2,5,10 that was talking about a bit of a "chester the child molester" moment that wanker boy was involved in not long ago at on oldtimers game....can't remember the details?

my biggest regret was not seeing him get knocked out.....i hated his lock out style but he was second to none in being able to do it well.....i also regret only seeing his one big loss to O'Reilly on tv....his other big beat downs i have seen on this site after the fact and althought they warm me it is too little to late

i also hated his nickname......Knuckles....i had a drunk man crushing habs fan that use to sit at my bar and gush about knuckles all the time which only made things worse....how does a light punching jersey clutcher end up with that nickname.

a true wanker then and can't say i have warmed up to him anymore over the years

[Stan Jonathan#1]

Thanks men. A couple of points:

1. How do you guys think he did here? He very much held his own. He lost one badly but won a couple as well. Playfair was dominant at this time beating Kluzak, O'reilly. and many others. Once again Nilan found a way to get it done. Nilan lost early in his career to Jonathan, Secord and Oreilly pretty decisively. After the first year once he got established he did not lose too many in clear cut fashion...He lost to Wilson, Barry Beck, and not many more until he hung on to long and jim McKenzie really beat him soundly when Nilan became a Bruin but he was all done at that point. Nilan very much held his own here but his style points were not good.

2. When Nilan was at Northeastern College (where he got drafted from) he was a real instigator on the ice of course and one game somebody from the crowd threw something at him. Nilans father went over anbd started punching the guy who threw it. Like father like son I guess.

3. 2,5,10 once said that Playfair owned Nilan in a big way and Nilan never beat him. As we can see this was totally not true. 2,5,10 is full of it at times to promote his favorite players and teams.



Thanks

[bzane]

Well, gosh, I grew up as a Montreal fan, and I realize that's tantamount to saying that I'm a cross-dresser on this forum, but I will try to put aside the usual hometown bias and relate the impact that the apparently-villainous Nilan had on the Canadiens in the early 'eighties.

This of course was coming off their glorious success of the 'seventies, and with no warning that they were on the cusp of a Dark Ages that continues to this day (and which has killed off most of my hockey interest- along with the bizarre Europeanizing, non-physical evolution of the NHL). You thought at the time, as a fan, that it would go on forever- great teams, endless Stanley Cups. All they needed was a little more toughness!

And then: CHRIS NILAN. Gee, a fer-real 300-penalty minute goon, and a Boston boy, to boot, a boyhood fan of Terry O'Reilly. Perfect!

(BigJack was kind enough to loan me some exclamation points).

Prior to Nilan, the Canadiens had always tried to get away with having if not star players at least the semi-skilled handle the rough stuff for them, fastidously avoiding actual goons as though their other players might contract AIDS from being in the same locker-room with them. So you had Larry Robinson, on occasion, and Doug Risebrough and Mario Tremblay and Yvon Lambert doing the fighting, as needed...... and thus you had Risebrough and Tremblay and Lambert losing fights to the Korabs and Gassoffs and Carrierres of the league, while Robinson glowered and pointed menacingly.

Furthermore, there was always a general geographic character to teams back then, the Habs eternally searching for skilled players, ideally slender young Frenchmen, while the Bruins and Flyers stocked up on escapees from Attica. The Bruins would call up The Boston Strangler; the Canadiens would announce the signing of Marcel Marceau and Maurice Chevalier to long-term contracts.

So, Nilan was viewed as something of a savior to an enforcer-deprived Habs fan, back, when, spring of 1980, I think it was? Okay, he may have lost to Jonathan and O'Reilly, but at least they had a genuine tough guy taking them on! No more having to watch Jacques LeMaire attempting to fight Keith Magnuson, sacre bleu! So- as far as I was concerned- Nilan had a lo-o-ong honeymoon period of loyal unquestioning fandom, when I was thankful for his simple presence (I stopped short of the man-love idolatry of inflatable dolls and stalking outside his house that sometimes comes up on these pages, opening new vistas of horror).

Same thing with the crazed Kordic, a few years later, perhaps, as it would turn out, an even worse basket case than Knuckle-Head.

Well, hey- one of the consolations of time and Old Pharte aging is that perhaps one gains a perspective lacking in one's rabid youth. I will say that, from this distance, it seems that Nilan was in the vanguard of the New Technical Style of hockey fighting, the clutch-and-grab, safety-first, turtle-when-necessary approach that gradually replaced the free-swinging brawls of the 'seventies (although it must be admitted that it's pretty easy to sit pecking at a keyboard and criticize a man for protecting his face from fists in a hockey fight. Had I played in the NHL back then I might have invented the pee-your-pants-and-faint method of fighting, confronted with a rampaging Wensink, who knows?)

Even less admirably, it appears that Nilan comported himself with all the class of a drugged-up Hari Krishna panhandling in an airport, off the ice. Well! I've long since given up any Montreal bias, and certainly any blind devotion to Chris Nilan; if any of you guys have any nasty stories about good ol' Metacarpals, on or off the ice, let's hear 'em! The dirtier the better!

[majew17]

So great to hear Dan Kelly. I grew up with that voice!

[BENNETTWOLF]

I think Nilan handled the series much better than he sometimes gets credit for (with some cautions). I was always under the impression that Playfair cemented his fearsome rep by "owning" Nilan among others. I think he did have another clear cut win over chris besides the one he "stung" Nilan in (#2). Like a fair number of "older" clips, #4+5 are hard to accurately score with a degree of surety that i'm comfortable with. whether it's "panning away", "missing the start", "bad angles", "darkness obscuring what really lands" or the UBIQITIOUS HEAD OF SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD BLOCKING THE ACTION.

In #1: He did well tying up the larger, stronger Playfair and imposing his will to take the win.

In #2: Playfair showed how dominant he could be, tagging Nilan and ragdolling him in a dominant win. I think that one must be in a lot of minds and th commentators enhance L.P.'s rep with their respect (as do many on his tapes)

In #3: Non event

In#4: The "clip issues" surface that mar the last two fights. It's hard to score. Nilan seems to do better in what we see but a lot of it is pretty hard to decipher. I wouldn't want to declare that Nilan actually won that fight to someone who sat in the building and saw it in its entireity up close but i'd give nilan the edge from what is shown.

In#5: The camera pans away from an obvious beginning of a scrap. The best part is, most likely, missed.

Couple of tidbits:

#1: Playfair was quoted in an interview posted here that he recalled getting up to play Nilan. He considered him a "bully". L.P. was very cool and straightforward in the interview, that's about as close as he came to saying he didn't care for someone. It looked like he was clearly challenging Nilan in the last scrap (#5). Too bad the camera panned away.

#2: Just wanted to add Mark Tinordi to the slender list of guys that truly got the best of Nilan. I recall him doing very well in a scrap while with Dallas vs Nilan. One of the few where the great technical fighter Nilan wasn't able to nuetralize a size differential quite effectively.

I never liked the guy and tended to underestimate him until recently. I have posted several times in all time rankings threads about him being glaringly absent from Merlin's comprehensive top ten rankings for such an all time great. While that is true (i think he made one single list in the 8-10 range), it's also virtually impossible to argue that he wasn't a truly great fighter. Just like in the Playfair series here, he was virtually impossible to dominate, had a spectacular card and beat a lot of truly fearsome names. One of the guys who has been moving up for me (all time wise). He's a guy that is a bit easy to underestimate until you see him impose his will on guys like a prime Semenko etc and rarely suffer a bad loss.

[brad houghton]

Originally Posted by BENNETTWOLF

I think Nilan handled the series much better than he sometimes gets credit for (with some cautions). I was always under the impression that Playfair cemented his fearsome rep by "owning" Nilan among others. I think he did have another clear cut win over chris besides the one he "stung" Nilan in (#2). Like a fair number of "older" clips, #4+5 are hard to accurately score with a degree of surety that i'm comfortable with. whether it's "panning away", "missing the start", "bad angles", "darkness obscuring what really lands" or the UBIQITIOUS HEAD OF SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD BLOCKING THE ACTION.

In #1: He did well tying up the larger, stronger Playfair and imposing his will to take the win.

In #2: Playfair showed how dominant he could be, tagging Nilan and ragdolling him in a dominant win. I think that one must be in a lot of minds and th commentators enhance L.P.'s rep with their respect (as do many on his tapes)

In #3: Non event

In#4: The "clip issues" surface that mar the last two fights. It's hard to score. Nilan seems to do better in what we see but a lot of it is pretty hard to decipher. I wouldn't want to declare that Nilan actually won that fight to someone who sat in the building and saw it in its entireity up close but i'd give nilan the edge from what is shown.

In#5: The camera pans away from an obvious beginning of a scrap. The best part is, most likely, missed.

Couple of tidbits:

#1: Playfair was quoted in an interview posted here that he recalled getting up to play Nilan. He considered him a "bully". L.P. was very cool and straightforward in the interview, that's about as close as he came to saying he didn't care for someone. It looked like he was clearly challenging Nilan in the last scrap (#5). Too bad the camera panned away.

#2: Just wanted to add Mark Tinordi to the slender list of guys that truly got the best of Nilan. I recall him doing very well in a scrap while with Dallas vs Nilan. One of the few where the great technical fighter Nilan wasn't able to nuetralize a size differential quite effectively.

I never liked the guy and tended to underestimate him until recently. I have posted several times in all time rankings threads about him being glaringly absent from Merlin's comprehensive top ten rankings for such an all time great. While that is true (i think he made one single list in the 8-10 range), it's also virtually impossible to argue that he wasn't a truly great fighter. Just like in the Playfair series here, he was virtually impossible to dominate, had a spectacular card and beat a lot of truly fearsome names. One of the guys who has been moving up for me (all time wise). He's a guy that is a bit easy to underestimate until you see him impose his will on guys like a prime Semenko etc and rarely suffer a bad loss.

great post BW

Nilan just hung in and tried to keep his beating minimized against the oft suprising Tin Man

YouTube - Mark Tinordi vs Chris Nilan

[2,5,10GameMatch]

Nilan at 50+ invited a 19 year old usher from the ACC to dinner and said "you should see me with my shirt off, these guys are all slobs", the loser.

You want some 19 year old ***** Nilan?? you gotta pay for it fukkstick.


Playfair owned Nilan, gotta give the guy points for balls though, not many guys tried Larry on that many times, if any.

[Stan Jonathan#1]

Originally Posted by 2,5,10GameMatch

Nilan at 50+ invited a 19 year old usher from the ACC to dinner and said "you should see me with my shirt off, these guys are all slobs", the loser.

You want some 19 year old ***** Nilan?? you gotta pay for it fukkstick.


Playfair owned Nilan, gotta give the guy points for balls though, not many guys tried Larry on that many times, if any.

He did not own him. Not even close. You continue to see what you want to see and not much else. The proof is in the viewing above. Nilan fought him damn tough and won a few. I hate him but am objective enough to state the truth, unlike you on many days.

[Stan Jonathan#1]

Originally Posted by BENNETTWOLF

I think Nilan handled the series much better than he sometimes gets credit for (with some cautions). I was always under the impression that Playfair cemented his fearsome rep by "owning" Nilan among others. I think he did have another clear cut win over chris besides the one he "stung" Nilan in (#2). Like a fair number of "older" clips, #4+5 are hard to accurately score with a degree of surety that i'm comfortable with. whether it's "panning away", "missing the start", "bad angles", "darkness obscuring what really lands" or the UBIQITIOUS HEAD OF SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD BLOCKING THE ACTION.

In #1: He did well tying up the larger, stronger Playfair and imposing his will to take the win.

In #2: Playfair showed how dominant he could be, tagging Nilan and ragdolling him in a dominant win. I think that one must be in a lot of minds and th commentators enhance L.P.'s rep with their respect (as do many on his tapes)

In #3: Non event

In#4: The "clip issues" surface that mar the last two fights. It's hard to score. Nilan seems to do better in what we see but a lot of it is pretty hard to decipher. I wouldn't want to declare that Nilan actually won that fight to someone who sat in the building and saw it in its entireity up close but i'd give nilan the edge from what is shown.

In#5: The camera pans away from an obvious beginning of a scrap. The best part is, most likely, missed.

Couple of tidbits:

#1: Playfair was quoted in an interview posted here that he recalled getting up to play Nilan. He considered him a "bully". L.P. was very cool and straightforward in the interview, that's about as close as he came to saying he didn't care for someone. It looked like he was clearly challenging Nilan in the last scrap (#5). Too bad the camera panned away.

#2: Just wanted to add Mark Tinordi to the slender list of guys that truly got the best of Nilan. I recall him doing very well in a scrap while with Dallas vs Nilan. One of the few where the great technical fighter Nilan wasn't able to nuetralize a size differential quite effectively.

I never liked the guy and tended to underestimate him until recently. I have posted several times in all time rankings threads about him being glaringly absent from Merlin's comprehensive top ten rankings for such an all time great. While that is true (i think he made one single list in the 8-10 range), it's also virtually impossible to argue that he wasn't a truly great fighter. Just like in the Playfair series here, he was virtually impossible to dominate, had a spectacular card and beat a lot of truly fearsome names. One of the guys who has been moving up for me (all time wise). He's a guy that is a bit easy to underestimate until you see him impose his will on guys like a prime Semenko etc and rarely suffer a bad loss.

Great post. I agree that you can give Nilan the wins in fights 1 and 4. You know one reason there is a myth that Playfair pummeled Nilan is because we usually see fight #2 more than any others where Playfair got a huge win. In fact I have seen that fight more than the rest of these fights COMBINED. This is sort of like Gillies/O"Reilly where the myth is that Gillies crushed him but the reality is different. Same here as Nilan very much held his own. Tinordi beat him and Nilan was ready to get crushed there but as usual found a way to keep it close enough. I think by this time as a Ranger he was definitely past his prime though. Gotta respect him in a big way as a fighter.


Any Battleship "ANALYSIS" out there?!?!

[nyrpack]

Originally Posted by 2,5,10GameMatch

Nilan at 50+ invited a 19 year old usher from the ACC to dinner and said "you should see me with my shirt off, these guys are all slobs", the loser.

You want some 19 year old ***** Nilan?? you gotta pay for it fukkstick.


Playfair owned Nilan, gotta give the guy points for balls though, not many guys tried Larry on that many times, if any.

scored it 1-1-2 both had solid victory and the other 2 were draws best i could tell , the 2nd didnt materalize