Bruiser has a bash
Blue Jackets’ Josh Anderson enjoying solid post-season
Remember how much impact Tom Wilson had in the playoffs last spring?
Remember how he not only had five goals and 15 points in 21 games, but led all players with 100 hits?
Remember how the strong skating 6-foot-4, 218-pound right winger created turnovers and extra room for Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin, his linemates on the Washington Capitals’ No. 1 unit and the top two scorers in the post-season tournament?
Wilson might not have received any Conn Smythe Trophy votes, but the Capitals rewarded him with a six-year contract extension that carries an annual $5.166-million cap hit.
Yes, every team would love to have a Tom Wilson. And the Blue Jackets have one, whether he wants to admit it or not.
“I don’t really like being compared to him, to be honest with you,” said Josh Anderson, a strong skating, 6-foot-3, 221pound right winger who not only has a similar playing style but could also pass as Wilson’s brother. “It’s always going to be there. I’ve heard it my whole life.”
Anderson shrugs when asked why he’d rather not be looked at as a Wilson clone.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe just playing against the guy for so many years. Yeah.”
While both are from the Toronto area, Wilson is a little more than a month older than Anderson, who turns 25 on Tuesday. They’ve been opponents since they were kids, including OHL days when Wilson was with the Plymouth Whalers and Anderson the London Knights.
They’ve dropped the gloves a few times over the years, but Anderson wouldn’t call what they have either a feud or a friendship.
“We run into each other a couple of times off the ice because we’re both from Toronto, so yeah once we do see each other obviously we talk a little bit,” he said. “But as soon as it gets on ice there’s no friends out there, that’s for sure.”
Where they did differ was in the eyes of the scouts heading into the 2012 entry draft. Wilson was selected in the first round, 16th overall, while somehow Anderson lasted until Round 4, where he was chosen 95th.
The Blue Jackets knew he’d become a valuable commodity, however. With the Vegas expansion draft looming, they traded William Karlsson, a first-round pick and David Clarkson’s weighty contract to the Golden Knights so they wouldn’t touch Anderson or Joonas Korpisalo.
The deal didn’t look so good last year, with Karlsson leading the expansion to the Cup final. It’s more than palatable now.
Korpisalo, the Blue Jackets backup goalie, should inherit the No. 1 job when Sergei Bobrovsky bolts for free agency in July. Anderson is coming off his best season, scoring 27 goals and 47 points. He is also an integral part of the Blue Jackets playoff run. Along with killing penalties and working on the best “fourth” line in hockey besides veterans Boone Jenner and Brandon Dubinsky, he is the Jackets’ most physical player and fiercest forechecker.
And Anderson is only going to get better.
“The biggest area he’s developed in is just his consistency in how to prepare,” said coach John Tortorella. “We all see his tools, his skating ability, his size. I think if he had a good night, it would get good to him, and he’d forget what to do the next day at practice. I think he has really concentrated on that part, of understanding.
“I say it all the time, but I think it’s such an important, what it is to be a pro. That isn’t just on-ice stuff, game time. It’s how you conduct yourself as a person. All the time, as National Hockey League player. I still think he has a lot to learn but he has made tremendous strides in concentrating on that part.”
Meanwhile, this should be Anderson’s time of year. Everybody ramps up the physical game, because so much is on the line.
“It’s so important in the playoffs, just to try to target some of their key players, to get them off their game,” he said, while noting the importance of staying on the right side of the line — something Wilson doesn’t always do and something Anderson is no doubt reminded of on a nightly basis. “You want to be careful, obviously with the head checks the last couple of years, you’ve got to keep an eye out for that. It’s just being smart about it too. If the hit is there, you want to take it and be above their ‘D’ at all times, be above the puck. You don’t want to go running around and just hitting for no reason.”
Anderson has grown to love Columbus, a city who knew very little about before he was drafted by the Blue Jackets. His current deal has one more year left, with a cap hit of $1.85 million, after which he becomes a restricted free agent.
If the Blue Jackets don’t lock him up, other teams will be lined up with offers when he does reach the open market. For while he was able to fall to Round 4 the year he was drafted, it’s now very easy to see Josh Anderson going from fourth line to first and making a strong impact on a Cup-winning team.