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BOSTON — While he is still a few days from potentially returning to the Bruins’ lineup, defenseman “Sheriff” Shane Hnidy is eager to make an impact on this team on or off the ice.

Today, Hnidy was activated from long-term injured reserve. But head coach Claude Julien remains inept that the veteran defenseman will be used as a “depth guy” and isn’t necessarily there to take one of the six spots on the blue-line despite the team’s 1-3-3 skid in the last seven contests.

“Well I think it’d be nice if we could find our game and get better here, but at the same time it’s one of those things you have to adjust with,” Julien said during today’s media session. “Just because he [Hnidy] is in our lineup doesn’t mean we can’t win our hockey game either.

“It’s just a matter of him not having played this year. There’s going to be some small adjustments with him, but we can change that, put him in some situations where he can get on the ice and help us more than hurt us.”

Although Hnidy’s status in the Bruins’ lineup is a little uncertain at this time, he is a little more upbeat to be taken off the LTIR even though he’ll be a healthy scratch when Boston takes the ice tonight.

“Today is a rest day for me,” Hnidy said. “They’ve been good at that sense giving me some rest, but its nice to know that now its a chance of putting me in and getting some game experience. It is nice to know that I can be ready to get into the game. The last couple of practices were good for me to get into battle and game situations and that really kind of helped.”

With the recent slump, Hnidy’s presence should help whether he’s on the ice or sitting in the press box to get a good view from Level 9.

And Hnidy himself is eager to make an impact anyway he can even if it means watching tonight’s game from the press box.

“I’ve been able to watch our game from up top and when you do that its an easier game to watch,” Hnidy said. “When you are down there, you can see certain habits in guys up close…There are things that we can improve and everyone recognizes it. We’ve played the game long enough. There are certain things we need to do and we need to just get back to our game and its a great chance. Its a great schedule for us going into the playoffs and we need to do it now. We can’t wait any longer, tonight is the night we need to turn things around.