Canadiens’ Josh Anderson is built for the playoffs
Remember when a lot of Canadiens fans wanted general manager Kent Hughes to trade Josh Anderson?
The Canadiens were near the bottom of the overall NHL standings at the 2023 trade deadline en route to missing the playoffs for the second straight season in the first full year of a rebuilding process. Anderson was having a good season and would finish with 21 goals to rank third on the team behind Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, who both scored 26.
At the time I wrote a column saying I thought trading the 6-foot-3, 226-pound Anderson would be a mistake because there aren’t many power forwards like him in the NHL and he’s the type of player who could excel in the playoffs once the Canadiens got there. Anderson was also very receptive to Martin St. Louis’s coaching techniques. St. Louis was teaching Anderson to add “some equilibrium” to his game instead of just racing up and down his wing as fast as he could as well as how to play better without the puck.
At the time, I asked Anderson why the Canadiens shouldn’t trade him.
“There’s not really a lot of power forwards in the league anymore who can skate, shoot, hit, fight, play that playoff hockey style,” he said. “I’m trying to be as consistent as I can in that department and once we build a winning team it’s going to be really important to have one of those guys.”
Exactly.
The Canadiens now have a winning team and Anderson showed just how important he is in a 4-3 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series Sunday. Anderson scored the first goal, had another goal called back because of a high stick and had a huge physical presence with four hits, including a big one in the second period that resulted in a charging penalty and knocked Lightning defenceman Charle-Édouard D’Astous out of the game.
“I thought he was ready to go right from the start,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki told reporters in Tampa. “His style of play and his energy and speed and physicality is perfect for playoff hockey. He started us off with a big goal and big hits and great stuff on the penalty kill. He had a big night for us and definitely need him for the rest of the playoffs to be playing like that.”
It was also a big night for Juraj Slafkovsky, who scored three goals. Since being made the No. 1 overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft Slafkovsky learned a lot by watching and talking with Anderson.
“He plays real physical,” Slafkovsky told reporters in Tampa. “I’m trying to get to that level of physicality. Obviously, he’s still stronger and faster when he goes to hit guys. I kind of slow down every time for some reason. But ever since I got here, I sit next to him in the locker room, he’s a great guy to (learn) from and help me. Always being positive and telling me when to maybe not make plays and go hit some people.”
In Pierre Gervais’s book, Tales From the Dressing Room, the former Canadiens equipment manager said that when the team advanced to the Stanley Cup final in 2021 before losing to the Lightning, the leaders in the locker room were Carey Price, Shea Weber, Corey Perry and Anderson. Anderson is the only one of those four still with the team.
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Anderson struggled during the 2023-24 season with only nine goals and a minus-18 differential. There were plenty of Canadiens fans upset that Hughes missed an opportunity the previous season to trade Anderson when his value was high, believing they were now stuck with him.
St. Louis decided to give Anderson a penalty-killing role at the start of last season to give him more ice time and help him find his game again. Anderson embraced that role and responded with 15 goals and then provided a physical presence in a first-round playoff loss to the Washington Capitals.
Anderson scored 14 goals this season, but his game is really built for the playoffs and now we’re seeing why Hughes decided to keep him.
Matthew Tkachuk, who won the Stanley Cup the last two years with the Florida Panthers, had high praise for Anderson on his Wingmen podcast Monday.
“I look at a guy like Josh Anderson as one of the best playoff players in hockey,” Tkachuk said. “A guy you know he’s out there every shift. He could score, he could run you into the third row, he’ll block shots. He could play a shutdown-role line, he flies around. Always, always come playoff time he’s one of if not the best players each and every night for his team.”
After Hughes decided not to move Anderson at the 2023 trade deadline the big winger spoke about how he liked where the Canadiens were headed.
“I’ve had multiple discussions with (management) and it would be pretty special to win here in Montreal,” he said. “I’ve said that ever since I got here.
“Who knows what the future holds? But I think they’re definitely heading in the right direction and if I’m a part of it, I’ll definitely be thrilled.”
Anderson is now a big part of it.
