Tikkanen presi.. tai ainakin apulaisvalmentajaksi!
Aurajoen pojat ovat niin tohkeissaan nenäketjussaan, että huutelevat jo ettei HIFK:lla ole koskaan ollut Sakun kaltaista taistelijaa. Niin, eihän meillä ole ollut kuin viisi Stanley Cupia voittanut Tikkanen ja kumppanit! :D
Kesän kunniaksi voidaan listata Tikin ja muiden ikivihreitä ajatuksia.
"Esa is one of the smartest players I've ever played with. He wants to win, whatever it takes. Naturally, I'd rather play with him than against him"
- Brett Hull
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"Esa is very special and funny guy. I've never seen him shut up. He can't speak Finnish, Swedish or English, but where-ever he goes he makes himself clear and is popular everywhere. Seeing how popular he is makes me feel proud being Finnish. Esa is king, everywhere."
- Jere Lehtinen
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Esa Tikkanen when asked what he says to irritate players responded, "Oh, I ask them about their moms and how their sisters are".
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"Actually I don't even believe that Esa is Finnish. I think he could be... Italian?"
- Jari Kurri
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When Esa was an Oiler, he was sitting on the bench yapping to one of his linemates. The linemate turned to Jari Kurri and asked what he was saying. Jari listened and said he had no clue.
- Jari Kurri
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"I know exactly how I want to quit. I want my last game to be tied with ten seconds left and I help win it with an assist. Preferably, the puck would go in the goal after it bounces off Esa Tikkanen's rear end, but I'm not particular."
- Wayne Gretzky in his autobiography
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"He brings something special. I don't know what it is, but if you ask him, you couldn't understand his answer."
- Wayne Gretzky
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"Well, Tiki is Tiki. What else can I say? He loves important games and always plays great in them."
- Wayne Gretzky after Esa scored his 2nd OT-goal in '97 playoffs against Florida
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During one intrasquad scrimmage, free spirited P.J. Stock is having a ball taking faceoffs against Gretzky. He even wins some.
"I should have had a penalty shot,'' Gretzky says, smiling. "He shot my stick away. I told him the only guy who ever did that to me was Tikkanen.''
- Wayne Gretzky
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"Esa talks twice as much as anybody else. That's because you can understand just a half what he says."
- Craig MacTavish
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"He's almost like he would have an overdose of sugar in his blood."
- Kevin Lowe
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"Esa Tikkanen is one of the best two-way players in the world"
- Colin Campbell
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"What can you expect from a player who's first NHL-game is on Stanley Cup finals? A lot."
- Glen Sather
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"You'll have to respect a guy who's got five Cups. Tiki wakes up the whole team with his personality."
- Jyrki Lumme
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Chasing star scorers around the ice with a defensive shadow has been around in hockey for one simple reason. "It works," Quinn laughed. "You don't always have guys on your roster who can do it. But a lot of people do get distracted by it, by a guy like a Esa Tikkanen. They're guys that just know how to get under your skin."
- Pat Quinn
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"If you are talking about a dirty dozen, Esa has to be captain."
- Bill Clement (ESPN Hockey analyst)
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Have you heard Esa Tikkanen's name mentioned once this season? Neither have I. That's always a bad sign.
- New York Rangers fan 2001
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"I told him not to worry. I brush my teeth every day."
-Esa Tikkanen on shadowing Craig Janney during the 1990 playoffs.
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"Moving out from St.Louis was pretty tough because I loved it there, but I was happy to get out from New Jersey. Who wants to play on swamp?"
- Tikkanen after the '95/'96 season
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"With the Rangers we never thought that how we could beat the Kings, because we always won them anyway. Instead, we were talking where would we go after the game. L.A. is PARTY."
- Esa Tikkanen
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"The play over here (SM-liiga) has improved much: many NHL players wouldn't be able to grab a roster spot on Finnish teams. If NHL teams and Finnish teams were to meet, I believe they would loose here. A match in a smaller rink is another
story though."
- Esa Tikkanen
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"The team (Rangers) can't be that bad if Madonna comes to see the games."
- Esa Tikkanen
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"I hate those freaking horns (in Anaheim) that sound like ducks. Its so aggravating to hear duck-sounds everytime we get the puck. Nowadays if I see Donald Duck on TV, I'll have to change the channel. I hate ducks."
- Esa Tikkanen ___________________________________________________
"My goal this year was to make the team and then get (Tikkanen's) number," Nieminen said. "I played with his number in Hershey. I've heard a lot of stories about what he did."
- Ville Nieminen
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"He's fast enough to be able to track down anyone on the ice, and he likes to violate their personal space. He's not really a fighter as much as he is an instigator. He's always charging the net. He's always drawing penalties. He's always putting himself in a position that someone has to get a piece of him. He either gets through them, or he aggravates them or he gets that penalty."
- Larry Pleau
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The Rangers won it all (Stanley Cup finals), of course, and after a day of celebrating, Messier addressed the team. No one had seen a teammate, Esa Tikkanen, in 24 hours, and they were concerned for his safety. But Messier calmed everyone and organized a search party, which eventually located Tikkanen.
- ESPN
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Tikkanen drives opponents crazy in the playoffs in multiple
languages. He can talk trash in English, Finnish and what former Edmonton teammates used to call ''Tikkish.'' That's a combination of Finnish and English uttered so fast that it is almost unintelligible, although opponents can tell from Tikkanen's grin and expression that they probably wouldn't like the words even if
they understood them. Once when asked what he said to Mario Lemieux to prompt him to take a swing, Tikkanen smiled and said, ''I just asked him how his mom was doing.''
He's a scrappy, defensive-minded forward who can shut down the opponent's top scorer and still score a big goal.
- USA Today
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Cherry did admit that a few of the imports have benefited their teams.
"There are some good ones. (LA King Thomas) Sandstrom I don't like, but he's a good stick man. And (Esa) Tikkanen -- he's a good checker and a 25 goal man."
- Don "Hockey Night in Canada" Cherry
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Tikkanen again on his coaching defenseman Anders Eriksson as an 11-year old, "I taught him a few things. Bad things."
Suurin osa tietysti on monille tuttua kamaa ja noin 100 000 muuta juttua olisi voinut heittää mukaan, mutta kertaus on opintojen äiti! Esa on legenda. Miehen pelkkä läsnäolemus toisi heti väriä lisää Alpon ja Harrin touhuihin. Perkele, jos HIFK:n miehet halutaan kynsin ja hampain Ilmalaan ja Espooseen, niin kyllä meidänkin pitää kelpuuttaa oma poika takaisin kotiin harharetkiltään.