Esa Tikkanen
Esa Kalervo Tikkanen ( born January 25, 1965 in Helsinki ) is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey player and current coach, who from 1985 to 2001 for the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals played in the National Hockey League, as well as the mosquitoes eating in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
Career
After the successful Junior World Championships 1983 Tikkanen, who had also at times played as a junior in Canada, was pulled from the Edmonton Oilers at the NHL Entry Draft in 1983 in the fourth round as the 80th. However, the jump from the Finnish League for HIFK Helsinki in the NHL it was not until the spring of 1985, when he was called up during the playoffs of the Oilers and won once in the same season his first Stanley Cup with them. In a team with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and his compatriot Jari Kurri he could repeat this success in 1987 and 1988. When Rendez -vous '87 he belonged to the squad of NHL teams. After Gretzky's departure Tikkanen helped to show in the 1989/90 season that the Oilers were able to win the title without their big star. Early 90s could Tikkanen, who scored regularly in the 80's between 60 and 80 points scorer a season, no longer reach these values and then the Oilers split off at the end of the 1992/93 season from him.
He he moved to the New York Rangers, with whom he captured his fifth Stanley Cup in the 1993/94 season.
Due strike launched the 1994/95 season much later and Esa played until the season starts again for HIFK Helsinki. In the NHL he played from then for the St. Louis Blues. From then on, his NHL career was marked by change. Shortly after the start of the 1995/96 season, the Blues gave him away to the New Jersey Devils, from where he moved to the Vancouver Canucks after only nine games. At the end of the following season, he returned to the New York Rangers. After good playoffs in New York, where he scored nine goals in 15 games his journey continued to the Florida Panthers, who soon charges him to the Washington Capitals.
His last position in the NHL were back the New York Rangers, for whom he still completed 33 games in the season 1998 /99.
In the fall of 1999 he returned to Europe. After a season with Jokerit and another in the DEL with the mosquitoes eating he ended his active career.
In the Finnish national team, he took part in world championships five times; In 1998, he won Olympic bronze in her in Nagano.
In the 2004-2005 season Tikkanen served the team Anyang Halla Winia from South Korea at the same time as player and coach; the following season, he was appointed coach of the Frisk Asker Tigers out in the Norwegian league.
Special fame Tikkanen by his constant babbling abstruse during the games, which was composed of a mixture of Finnish, Swedish and English, affectionately known as "Tiki - Talk".