Music: {allcanada} Hamhuis doesn't have any Rinne secrets

Thursday, April 28, 2011

{allcanada} Hamhuis doesn't have any Rinne secrets

Vancouver Canucks defenceman Dan Hamhuis is a popular guy among his teammates and coaching staff these days.

The first-year Canuck has been inundated with questions about Vancouver's second-round opponent, the Nashville Predators. Hamhuis spent six seasons with Nashville and has insider knowledge of what makes the underdog club.

"They play a real tight system, they work hard as a team and they're well coached," he said. "They make it real tough for opposition teams to get offence against them and I'm sure they'll stick with that plan. They've created a good culture in Nashville.

And how do the Canucks beat Vezina Trophy-candidate Pekka Rinne?

"I never found any [cracks] in practice," Hamhuis said. "He's a great goalie, tall and lanky like Roberto Luongo and extremely athletic. He's been playing extremely well for them all season so you do what you do with most goalies, and that's make it difficult with traffic and getting tips and rebounds."

Burrows birth

Less than 24 hours after Alex Burrows scored the overtime winner to clinch the opening-round series against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Canucks forward and his wife Nancy celebrated the birth of a daughter on Wednesday evening. Victoria was born at 9:10 p.m. PT.

"It's been an emotional few days," Burrows said.

B.C. boys

The Predators line-up contains a few players with ties to British Columbia in defencemen Shea Weber and Cody Franson, both of Sicamous, and Jerrod Smithson of Vernon.

Also, rookie defenceman Jonathan Blum played junior with the Vancouver Giants.

Salo out

Vancouver defenceman Sami Salo will remain on the sidelines with his leg injury. He departed midway through the first period of Game 6 against the Blackhawks. He did not participate in the Canucks mornings skate.

Line combinations and defence pairings

Vancouver

D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Samuelsson

Raymond-Kesler-Burrows

Higgins-Lapierre-Hansen

Torres-Glass-Oreskovich

Hamhuis-Bieksa

Edler-Ehrhoff

Rome-Ballard

Nashville

Ward-Legwand-Erat

Kostitsyn-Fisher-Hornqvist