Edmonton Oilers legend robbed of a major honor in 1990 as new details surface

Every so often a debate from Oilers history gets dug back up, and this one still gets fans talking.

In 1990, Edmonton won its fifth Stanley Cup in seven years, a title run that came without Wayne Gretzky for the first time and still ended in a five game beatdown of Boston.

Bill Ranford took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, and nobody would call that an undeserving pick.

He started all 22 games that spring, put together an eight game winning streak, and helped Edmonton climb out of a 3-1 hole in the opening round.

That's a legitimate case on its own.

But a resurfaced piece from Oilersnation makes the argument that Esa Tikkanen belonged in the conversation just as much.

Tikkanen spent that entire postseason getting under the skin of the league's best players, chasing down Gretzky himself in the second round before turning his attention to Chicago's stars and then Boston's Craig Janney in the final.

He didn't just shadow guys, he rattled them, turning would be offensive threats into non factors through four full rounds.

It wasn't only shutdown work either.

Tikkanen chipped in offense throughout the run and was right there among Edmonton's scoring leaders that spring, all while being handed the toughest matchup on the other end of the ice nearly every night.

Few players in that era were trusted to do both jobs at once the way he was.

Ranford's case is real and the trophy wasn't stolen from anybody.

Still, Tikkanen's fingerprints were all over that Cup, and in a league that increasingly values two way dominance, his 1990 run reads even better with three and a half decades of hindsight.

It's the kind of what if that keeps Oilers history fun to argue about.

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