With Milan Lucic out of practice Monday, defenseman Matt Hunwick was asked to trade in his black practice uniform for a shiny white one and emulate Boston's corner king with the No. 1 offensive unit.
Aside from the obvious differences in physical characteristics — Hunwick is 5-foot-11, 190 pounds while Lucic stands 6-foot-4 and weighs in at 220 — the transition was a little difficult and quite interesting for Hunwick, who actually played five games at forward for head coach Claude Julien last season.
"Things where there are competitions and battles, that's where I have
to bear down and make sure I kind of try to emulate Luch as best as
possible," Hunwick told John Bishop of bostonbruins.com. "You just try to do the opposite [of what you would on defense]. As a defenseman, you're trying to take the puck away. As a forward, I try to make it as game-like as possible, just trying to be strong on the puck."
In his first NHL season, the Michigan native scored six goals and potted 21 assists in 53 games, the majority of them spent as a defenseman. From Nov. 17-28 he owned a six-game point streak where he netted three goals and helped out on five more.
In Hunwick's absence on the blue line Monday, Johnny Boychuk stepped up and served as Mark Stuart's defensive partner. The switch isn't expected to be long-term as Julien said Lucic is likely to return Tuesday after missing Monday's workout due to "non-hockey-related personal issues."
