When James Hagens made a move around Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Sam Girard on Thursday night in the third period of the Boston Bruins 6-2 win, the veteran blueliner hit the Bruins rookie forward in the lower back with a cross-check.
After a day off on Friday, it was announced Saturday morning that Hagens was going to be placed on injured reserve, and after practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Saturday morning, head coach Marco Sturm said that his third-liner was going to miss a couple of weeks. Not good. Boston called up veteran forward Mikey Eyssimont on Saturday to take Hagens spot on the roster, and he made an immediate impact in the Black and Gold's 4-1 statement win over the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon at the TD Garden.
After the game, Eyssimont didn't mince words in terms of what it was like to go down with the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League before getting the call back up.
“It’s a gut punch, but you try to keep up your enthusiasm and keep developing as a player, and (Providence) is a great place to do it,” Eyssimont said, per BostonBruins.com after the win over the Panthers.
Mike Eyssimont makes early impact in win over Panthers
Eyssimont was a tough cut for Sturm at the end of camp. However, he was slotted into the lineup against Florida less than 48 hours after scoring a third-period hat trick for the P-Bruins in a win over Hamilton. As you would expect, he scored the second Boston goal of the game in the first period, which turned out to be the game-winning strike.
For reference, Eyssimont was slotted in on the second line with Fraser Minten and Morgan Geekie, while Matthew Poitras was dropped back to the fourth line after practicing on the second line on Saturday. Sturm was even excited for the veteran forward.
“Yeah, he’s another guy who came in, and we talked about him in training camp,'' said Sturm, per BostonBruins.com. "I saw him quickly this morning, and he didn’t change at all. … I’m glad [that] after he got sent down to the minors, he reacted the right way and he’s just waited for his opportunity.''
Eyssimont will stick around for a while for the Bruins and will likely be slotted into the lineup more than he is scratched. Of course, he scored the game-winning goal in a game that was mucked up by the Panthers and the Tkachuk brothers, but it feels like everything Sturm does right now in terms of lineup decisions turns into Gold.
Add us as a preferred source on Google