Following the Boston Bruins' 5-4 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers in Sunrise on Wednesday night, it ended the Black and Gold's schedule until the end of the month after the Olympic break. It was the second straight shootout loss for the Bruins after falling, 6-5, to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night in the Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium.
Nine members of the Bruins will be heading to the Olympics, and one of them, David Pastrnak, will have quite an honor. He was tabbed as Czechia’s flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. After the loss to Florida, he spoke about the honor.
“I am speechless,” Pastrnak said. “Very, very honored. I am going to give them my all. Very happy and honored to be able to hold our flag and represent us at the ceremony.”
Mikey Eyssimont buries two goals against Panthers
Forward Mikey Eyssimont has been a healthy scratch lately by head coach Marco Sturm, but with injuries to Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha recently, he has been put back into the lineup. Against the. Panthers, he scored two first-period goals on breakaways against Sergei Bobrovsky. He was set up with a nice stretch pass from Marat Khusnutdinov for his second goal coming out of the penalty box.
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE 🤌 pic.twitter.com/77WTuJxjQm
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 5, 2026
“I didn’t even see (Khusnutdinov) take a look, he just knew,” Eyssimont said. “Good awareness for him to know the time, and he got the puck to me. I was feeling it, felt good. I knew I could do something in tight.”
Eyssimont's second goal was a beauty when he deeked Bobrovsky, got him down and he was able to stuff the puck between the player and the post. Those were two big goals.
Brad Marchand makes surprise appearance in lineup
Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said that former Bruins captain Brad Marchand was not going to play. He came out for warmups and ended up in the lineup. Now, whether or not it was gamesmanship by Maurice, he was glad he was in the lineup. In the fourth round of the shootout, Marchand scored the game-winner on Joonas Korpisalo.
“Good to get the win. [Boston] is playing really well right now,” said Marchand. "I thought we had a good game. Special teams were really good, and that was the difference tonight. … Unfortunately, they were able to battle back in the third, but it was good to get that extra point.”
He's not wrong. Florida dominated special teams with a pair of power play goals and a shorthanded strike. Tell me that shorthanded goal at the end of the second period wasn't a big one.