Karsums

BOSTON — Based on this morning’s drills at TD Banknorth Garden, and Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien’s comments after the skate, defenseman Matt Hunwick should move up and play forward in place of the injured Milan Lucic for the second straight game.

That will leave healthy forward Martins Karsums in the press box for the Boston’s battle with the Philadelphia Flyers. Karsums, however, hasn’t been discouraged by seeing his potential spot in the line-up taken by guy whose natural position is on the back line.

“That’s coach’s decision; you can’t really do anything about it,” the 23-year-old Karsums told TheBruinsBlog.net this morning. “I’m just happy to be here and I’m going to practice as long as I need to just so when he thinks I’m ready I’m going to be ready.”

Karsums was one of the last players off the ice this morning. He hasn’t played in a  game since Feb. 22 at Tampa Bay, where he skated for just 9:03 and posted a minus-1 rating. So far, he has just one assist in six NHL games.

But he’s maximizing every minute he has with the big club in his effort to stick around.

“Obviously, you have so much free time you can work on everything — my shot, my skating. That’s probably the most important things you have to really work on,” said Karsums, who’s also  been working on his conditioning with strength and conditioning coach John Whitesides.