DALLAS — It’s been a reflective time for Dan Hamhuis.
That’s what happens when you’re about to become the 318th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 games played.
“It feels pretty special I guess to be in such a small number of guys to get there,” Hamhuis said. “Never expected it going in that first year, going in a place like this.”
It’s been a long time — two lockouts have passed — since Hamhuis made his NHL debut on Oct. 9, 2003 as a rookie with the Nashville Predators against the Anaheim Ducks.
“I wasn’t sure if I ever was actually going to get a shift in it,” Hamhuis said. “Then when I got a call to go over the boards it was an offensive zone face-off and Sergei Federov was out there, and I was probably shaking in my boots. The game went pretty well, I remember that quite clearly.”
Both of Hamhuis’ parents have flown into town for the game — on Monday his dad said, “I was here for the first one, should be here for the 1,000th one” — and as a family they’ve been reflecting on Dan’s career.
“It’s been neat kind of over the last couple weeks reflecting on the career and so many great memories,” Hamhuis said. “So many great memories of people and places, and then last night my parents came in for the game and how they got me to Game 1, that was a huge amount of sacrifice for them, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Kings projected lineup
Alex Iafallo — Anze Kopitar — Tyler Toffoli
Tanner Pearson — Adrian Kempe — Dustin Brown
Andy Andreoff — Michael Amadio — Jonny Brodzinski
Kyle Clifford — Torrey Mitchell — Trevor Lewis
Kevin Gravel — Drew Doughty
Alec Martinez — Christian Folin
Jake Muzzin — Pau Ladue
Darcy Kuemper
Jack Campbell
Scratched: Marian Gaborik
Injured: Jeff Carter (lower body), Derek Forbort (upper body), Jonathan Quick (lower body), Nick Shore (lower body)
Stars projected lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Gemel Smith — Jason Spezza — Brett Ritchie
Devin Shore — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie — Jason Dickinson — Mattias Janmark
Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns — Julius Honka
Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: Dillon Heatherington
Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Martin Hanzal (lower-body), Antoine Roussel (nasal infection)
Garret Matchen says
Any reason Janmark is down on the 4th line? I thought him and Spezza had been looking good lately.
Christopher Story says
Just because he’s on the 4th line doesn’t mean he’s going to get 4th line minutes.