The Sunday Read: How Eyssimont Prepares his Mind for the NHL Demands 

BOSTON –– Hours before the puck drops at TD Garden, Mikey Eyssimont sits in the media room across the hall from his Boston Bruins stall.

The forward has his phone open to the New York Times app and is doing crossword puzzles with Robyn Altman, an audio technician for NESN.

It is one of the routines that gets Eyssimont ready for a game.

“[Robyn] always has her crosswords out. There is a lot of time before a game. I think it’s just a nice way to get it off your mind for like five or 10 minutes,” Eyssimont said. “I try to do them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the New York Times. It is more so just something to do on my phone that is not rotting me away.”​

Eyssimont is in his fifth season and fifth team in the league, so he has worked on ways to keep himself grounded through the ups and downs of NHL life. The 29-year-old signed a two-year deal with Boston in July after playing for both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Seattle Kraken last season.

​“I’ve been traded around a lot. I don’t really have many material goods. I sold my home in Tampa and sold it furnished. So I travel pretty light, which is how I like to live,” Eyssimont said.

“I think you see a lot of guys, the way that they prepare, there are a lot of things that go into it. I think that I’ve learned, as I’ve gotten older, that instead of adding things in to do to feel better, it’s more important to subtract things from my life. I just try to simplify everything. Clothing-wise, at home-wise – I just like living pretty simply. Less to think about.”

​September was another new start for Eyssimont as the Bruins’ training camp opened. After a strong summer of work, it was time to show what he was capable of for a different team. There is excitement, but also, there is pressure. Eyssimont decided to write about what he was feeling.

He started a personal Substack where he has – and plans to eventually continue to – post journals from an NHL player’s perspective.

​“I think writing is a nice way for me to organize my thoughts personally, and the people around me – just like friends – have been very curious about what it’s like to be in the NHL. Just kind of the road that I am on. They always tell me that people will find that interesting. Things might be mundane or monotonous to you, but that’s interesting to other people. My idea was to give some little insights into that,” Eyssimont said.

“I’m not a guy who is going to make a YouTube channel or do a get ready with me or pack with me for a trip like on a video.”

Head coach Marco Sturm knew Eyssimont before they both landed in Boston. Eyssimont – who was a fifth-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2016 – spent three seasons with their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, after three years of NCAA hockey at St. Cloud State University. Sturm was an assistant coach for the Kings while Eyssimont was in the organization, and became the head coach of the Reign in 2022.

He, accordingly, was not surprised by Eyssimont’s preparation process off the ice.

​“I’ve been around him for a little bit, and Mikey does his own thing. He does that kind of stuff,” Sturm said. “Everyone is different, everyone has a different routine to get his mind back in order away from hockey. As long as it works, they can do whatever they want.”

Eyssimont's response to adversity was tested during January; he was a healthy scratch for two weeks. He got back in the lineup on Jan. 27 and had three points (two goals, one assist) in the final two games heading into the Olympic break.

Eyssimont picked up an assist against his former team, the Lightning, with a spinning move along the boards to set up Alex Steeves in Sunday’s Stadium Series matchup under the bright lights at Raymond James Stadium. He followed it up with two first-period goals against the Florida Panthers during Wednesday’s shootout loss – and they were pretty.

​“Just feeling it. Just felt good,” Eyssimont said. “Saw him try to kind of fake a poke check really early, so I kind of knew I could do something in tight.”

​For the opening tally, Eyssimont gathered the puck in the slot and fired a wrist shot five-hole on Sergei Bobrovsky. Less than five minutes later, Eyssimont popped out of the penalty box, settled a stretch pass from Marat Khusnutdinov, and deked Bobrovsky, slipping the puck behind his pads. It was the first two-goal game of Eyssimont’s NHL career. And it happened because Eyssimont never stopped preparing to be his best, no matter the lineup circumstances.

​“I always try to keep my confidence in practice,” Eyssimont said. “Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve been able to do that and just feel really good in practice. Be able to go home, lay on my couch, and know that I am working my butt off. I still feel skilled and trust myself as a player.”

Tanner Jeannot – who dropped the gloves in Florida – was also reunited with Eyssimont during July’s free-agency window. The forward played two seasons in Tampa Bay with Eyssimont and signed his five-year deal with the Bruins this summer. Jeannot has been a bottom-six, grinding stalwart for the B’s this season, and has skated with Eyssimont from time to time.

“He is really intense and detail-oriented. He’s just super interesting. I talk to Mikey about things that I don’t talk to anybody else about. Just like culture and traveling to different countries. Just different things that I never really talk about,” Jeannot said. “The hockey world is so small. Being in it now for a while, that type of stuff happens all the time. It seems like every team, there is somebody that you have crossed paths with at some point in your career. It’s really cool.”

​Eyssimont has made new friendships, too, in the Black & Gold. Namely, Jeremy Swayman. The two both represented Team USA in the 2025 IIHF Men’s World Championship in May; the group won its first gold medal in 92 years together.

​“His background is Colorado, so outdoorsy stuff, and mine’s Alaska. So we really bond over outdoorsy stuff – skiing, hiking,” Swayman said. “He’s big into fashion, I’m not. So I’m learning a lot from him. He’s brought a lot of great stuff to my wardrobe to the point where my fiancée is like, ‘Wow, who are you?’ That’s a big compliment coming from her.”

Eyssimont has also recommended books to Swayman, but the goaltender is a slower reader than his teammate, he said. One of Eyssimont’s books from this year was James, which is “basically Huckleberry Finn, but from Huck’s perspective.” Sally Rooney is also an author Eyssimont has liked.

“Favorite novel I read this year was Intermezzo,” Eyssimont said. “[Rooney] just has a cool little world. I’ve read a few of hers. That was good.”

Swayman has his own routines that get him locked in to be between the pipes for the Bruins on a nightly basis. Eyssimont’s emphasis on doing work for the mind is something the netminder relates to. It is a long season, and the players have to carry each other along.

“The biggest thing is if you’re feeling good off the ice, it’s going to translate on the ice. This is a game where there is a big stigma on mental health right now, and we want to make it an environment where you can almost escape from the challenges of life at the rink,” Swayman said. “There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of expectations. Us as athletes, we make that apparent – that’s why we’re at this level. It’s hard to balance that, and I think talking to guys like [Eyssimont] has helped both of us.”