Anderson taking care of bottom line amid high scores
Craig Anderson could get down on himself if he stared too long at his goals-against average.
By standard measures over the past couple of decades in the National Hockey League, a 3.00 mark isn’t all that good.
Considering the higher-scoring start to this season, though, the number that ultimately matters most is wins.
Going into Sunday’s games, Anderson’s four victories tied him for tops in the league with Nashville’s Juuse Saros, New Jersey’s Keith Kincaid, Anaheim’s John Gibson and Marc-Andre Fleury of Vegas.
“When you win, it’s great,” Anderson said as he enjoyed the celebration following Saturday’s 4-3 overtime triumph over the Montreal Canadiens.
“The scores are up. That’s just kind of the way things are right now. If you’ve got to break down how many scoring chances (there are), the game is faster, guys are shooting better. As long as it’s an average across the league, you can’t look at it as like, ‘I’ve given up three (tonight).’
NEW NORM
“If everybody is giving up three, that’s kind of the new norm. We’ll just wait and see how things play out.”
Defending Stanley Cup-champion Washington leads offensively with an average of 4.1 goals per game, followed by the Senators at 4.0 and Chicago at 3.9.
Overall, 18 teams are above 3.0 goals per game, two are exactly at 3.0 and 11 are below that mark.
In tighter-checking eras, giving up three goals in the first period — as the Senators did Saturday — would have meant a slim chance of victory.
“I thought we were pretty tight defensively in the second and third periods,” Anderson said. “In the first period, we didn’t manage the game or the puck really well, but we did a great job from there, just re-setting.”
When the game was done, the Senators had allowed 27 shots, the first time in seven outings that an Ottawa opponent had fewer than 30.
Before Sunday’s NHL action, Anderson ranked third in total saves and his .920 save percentage represented a marked improvement from the .898 figure he compiled last season.