Chris "Knuckles" Nilan

[Disgruntled70sHab]

[Willie Dog]

Thanks for posting this Rick... love that Knuckles guy!!

[folatre]

Very cool. Since I was too young to remember the great Habs dynasty at the end of the 70s, the players that captured my imagination were the 80s Habs and Nilan was right there among my favorites.

Man, he really hit the ground running (and punching) with the Voyageurs. Being a grown man having played four years at Northeastern probably helped. Also, I think that in a documentary and/or interview that I watched it said that his dad was a no nonsense marine and that young Nilan got in quite a few scraps in the neighborhood if anyone messed with his friends.

During the Covid spring and summer my son and I watched a ton of videos of those 80s Habs teams in the playoffs and he was actually thinking about changing his number from 21 to 30 for this season. But I told him hey stick with Carbonneau's number.

[GNick99]

I met Nilan once when he was playing in Halifax. Seemed like a nice fellow. I was about 16, he came into a corner store bought 2 packs of cigs. Had a chat with him. Said he was on his way to the states for a game.

[jkr]

He's got an interesting background.

I'm reading a book about Whitey Bulger, the former Boston gangster. Nilan's one time mother-in-law was Bulger's long time girlfriend. Probably safe to say he knew the guy.

[folatre]

For sure, he knew the guy. You are certainly right and I probably was not paying close enough attention to the documentary/interview but I have thought all this time that Nilan was married to Bulger's daughter.