What if Ulf Nilsson didn’t break his ankle?

Ulf Nilsson #11 of the New York Rangers (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Welcome to another edition of Blueshirts Briefs, a series profiling individuals who worked a short shift for the New York Rangers.

This week, I decided to look back on what might have been for forward Ulf Nilsson and the New York Rangers had the Swedish-born forward not broken his ankle on February 25, 1979, at Madison Square Garden.

If you’re a Rangers fan you know the background by now, even if you were still just a star in the sky waiting to be born, so I’ll be brief with the recap: Nilsson was sent crashing into the boards and down to the ice on a clean hit by New York Islanders defenseman Denis Potvin. On his…