Anderson wants Jackets to be ‘meaner’
You don’t see it all the time, but Josh Anderson has certainly proven he’s capable of generating some massive power.
Every so often, the biggest Blue Jackets forward unleashes his inner beast and makes some poor guy from the opposing team pay the price. The most recent to experience Anderson’s wrath was Justin Abdelkader on Tuesday at Nationwide Arena.
Anderson, 6 feet 3 and 221 pounds, smashed the Detroit Red Wings forward into the glass near the Columbus bench like a big, red bug, one of the few memorable plays for the Blue Jackets in an abysmal first period.
“I think we’ve got to be meaner to play against,” Anderson said a week earlier, after winning a scrum for the puck by lifting Arizona Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarrson off his skates and discarding him into the end boards like a rag doll. “We’re just too soft right now. I think if we come together and play Josh Anderson, fighting for the puck with the Red Wings’ Trevor Daley, scored his sixth goal of the season in the loss to Detroit on Tuesday.
as a team, and win those
and be a lot more physical, I think that will help our overall game.”
The Blue Jackets agree and would like to see Anderson get those fiery eyes going a little more often. He’s off to another good start offensively, scoring his sixth goal of the season Tuesday to tie Cam Atkinson for the team lead, but letting his power out consistently is still a struggle.
“I have high expectations for myself and I want to have a big year this year, and help this team out as much as I can,” Anderson said. “I’m off to a decent start right now, but I’ve got
to keep playing well and be consistent, and maybe start throwing the body around a little bit more than I have been, because I think that will open up a bit more space for myself and my linemates.”
The Blue Jackets’ fourth line made a deposit in its account at the John Tortorella Bank and Trust on Tuesday night.
The little-used fourth line got more minutes than usual and capitalized, sparking an impressive comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the third. Markus Hannikainen set up the first two goals with great backhand passes, while Lukas Sedlak and Riley Nash helped him create some offensive pressure throughout the period.
“They just competed,” forward Nick Foligno said. “They threw pucks to the net. We could learn something from that, especially in a game like (that). That’s what it was going to take to get back into it. Credit to those guys for getting us going, sparking us like that. We just need more of that in our game.”
Hannikainen’s second assist set up a goal by defenseman Markus Nutivaara, who scored his first goal of the season.
“It was huge for me, personally,” Nutivaara said. “It was a big goal and I wanted to get it done. (Hannikainen) actually looked me eye-to-eye and I was expecting that puck, so it was pretty easy to put in.”