MORNING SKATE: Hamhuis ready for another face-off, and Klingberg has his teeth back

DALLAS — If needed, Dan Hamhuis is ready to take another face-off tonight against the San Jose Sharks.

In the Stars 4-2 win against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday, Hamhuis had to step in during a 5-on-3 penalty kill after Radek Faksa was tossed from the face-off.

“Didn’t know what I was doing, but I think it turned out pretty well, we killed the penalty and won the game,” Hamhuis said.

Hamhuis was officially given a loss on the draw, but he tied up the opposing center, and multiple teammates said he was screwed by the stat keepers.

“Yea, that’s BS, Hammer won that,” Greg Pateryn said.

It was officially the second face-off of Hamhuis’ career. He also took won back with Nashville Predators in the first two or three seasons of his career.

“It was the same situation, 5-on-3, center got tossed,” Hamhuis said. “I know I won that draw.”

So if we ignore stat keepers, the veteran defender is officially 2-0 in his career on face-offs.

“That sounds good, let’s go with that,” Hamhuis said.

Dental work

John Klingberg has his teeth back, or at least he has the bridge back in to make it look like real teeth.

Klingberg originally lost his two front teeth during the 2017 IIHF World Championships on a high stick. At that time he went five weeks without teeth before having a bridge made, giving the illusion of real teeth.

Last week the bridge was loose, so Klingberg played the last two games without any teeth.

“They were loose so I pulled them out two days ago and went back to the dentist yesterday,” Klingberg said. “They look good again.”

Methot skates

Marc Methot took part in the morning skate and was part of the penalty killing portion of the festivities.

Methot isn’t going to play tonight, but he’s looked better at practice each day. The biggest concern for Methot is the durability and endurance on the knee, which the Stars haven’t fully tested yet.

Martin Haznal, as planned, didn’t skate and the plan is for him not to skate until the Jan. 2 morning skate against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Dillon back in town

I caught up with former Stars defenseman Brendan Dillon before the morning skate, and he was unofficially in charge of planning the Sharks New Year’s Eve festivities in a city that he spent three years in before getting traded to San Jose on Nov. 21, 2014.

Dillon also said he was planning on catching up with a couple former teammates after the game, but that number has dwindled greatly and there were really only four or five players that he still knew “extremely well.”

Dickinson ready and waiting

Jason Dickinson looks like a healthy scratch tonight against the Sharks, but could play later this week against the Columbus Blue Jackets or New Jersey Devils.

Dickinson has played well in the AHL recently, but hit a bit of a cold streak around the Christmas Break.

“It’s been going well, the Christmas Break was a bit of a set back for some reason, but I’ve been playing well,” Dickinson said. “I’m still doing all the little things that I have been doing, my hips are feeling well, my conditioning on the ice is good, and it just feels like the puck isn’t going in.”

Sharks projected lineup

Jannik Hansen — Joe Thornton — Joe Pavelski
Melker Karlsson — Tomas Hertl — Kevin Labanc
Timo Meier — Chris Tierney — Joonas Donskoi
Marcus Sorensen — Joel Ward — Mikkel Boedker

Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon — Brent Burns
Joakim Ryan — Dylan DeMelo

Martin Jones
Aaron Dell

Scratched: Tim Heed, Paul Martin

Injured : Logan Couture (concussion), Barclay Goodrow (lower body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Mattias Janmark — Gemel Smith — Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie — Jason Spezza — Brett Ritchie

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns — Julius Honka

Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen

Scratched: Jason Dickinson
Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Martin Hanzal (lower-body)