Follow me on twitter @IanEsplen for talk about hockey, sports and life in general anytime

This week has seen the city of Calgary a buzz and every sports journalist in the country is giddy.

Why? Well get to see Sidney Crosby lace up his…well…sneakers and pass the ball around likely has a lot to do with it.

So amongst all this buzz and making of the lineups, one player continues to be ruled out. That player is Dan "the man" Hamhuis.

Here is why people shouldn't count the quiet blueliner out.


1- He's a left-handed shot

Canada invited 17 defenceman and only Alzner, Bouwmeester, Keith, Methot, Phaneuf, Staal and Vlasic are left-handed.

Looking at this list I would say that Keith is the only lock of the bunch and you have to assume that there will be at least one more left-handed defenceman. And I honestly don't see any defenceman other than maybe Bouwmeester who is even in Hamhuis' league.


2- Past success

Hamhuis has suited up for Canada six times and brought back five medals. Included in that medal haul is a Gold he won at the 2007 World Championships in Moscow. Success on the big ice: check. Success playing in a hostile Pro-Russian arena: double check.


3- Lining up with Weber

In a tournament like the Olympics team chemistry is huge. To a certain extent, Dan Hamhuis has that with perennial lock Shea Weber. Hamhuis spent four years playing off and on with Weber and lined up with him on that 2007 Gold medal winning team. If he makes the team, slotting him in alongside Weber seems like a likely option.

At the end of the day, yes, Dan Hamhuis is still a long-shot. But he's not as long as you may think.


Is Hamhuis on your Team Canada?



Until tomorrow my friends, stay classy

Ian

***********


If you are interested in advertising your business to people in the Vancouver area or to hockey fans across North America, you can contact me by clicking the “CONTACT” button at the top of the page.

KINDLE USERS in the United States of America only: Sign up for Canucks Buzz; a one-stop feed for all things Canucks-related on HockeyBuzz. Content is delivered instantly to your Kindle reader whenever a new Canucks-related blog is published. For more information click here.