2 Bruins superstars earn tremendous honor ahead of 2026 Olympics

The Boston Bruins are sending a handful of players to Milan to live out a childhood dream and represent their countries in the 2026 Olympics. Unfortunately, one player, Pavel Zacha, was ruled out of the Tournament on Saturday after suffering an upper-body injury on Jan. 28 in a win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the TD Garden.

Meanwhile, two other members of the Black and Gold who are taking part in the games were given an honor that they will remember for the rest of their lives. David Pastrnak was named assistant captain of Team Czechia, and Charlie McAvoy was named an assistsant captain of Team USA.

Two Bruins named assistant captains for their countries

This is a huge honor for both players. As far as Pastrnak and Team Czechia go, Roman Červenka was named captain, and Radko Gudas will be the other assistant captain.

As far as McAvoy and Team USA go, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs was named captain, while Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers was named the other assistant captain, along with McAvoy.

McAvoy is playing in the Olympics one year after having his run in the 4 Nations Faceoff cut short after suffering an injury early in last year's tournament. That injury knocked McAvoy out of not only the tournament but also for the rest of the Bruins' season, which went downhill really fast following the 4 Nations, which led general manager Don Sweeney to sell and sell big at the deadline.

Last Wednesday night, McAvoy's ability to play in the Olympic Games almost took a devastating hit when he was on the receiving end of an elbow from the Panthers Sandis Vilmanis. He left in the first period after being down for a while, but surprisingly returned for the second period and finished out the game.

McAvoy took to social media on Friday night to post the result of the hit he took with no disciplinary action being taken by NHL Player Safety. Surprise, surprise.