Josh Anderson, The Big Engine That Could

Josh Anderson has been on a hot streak over the last few weeks, almost single-handidly — it kinda feels like — carrying the Blue Jackets on his back. No. 77 has set a career high with 24 goals and counting, and this is his first season with at least 40 points.

The 6’3”, 221 pound power forward, revving engine and all, brings a presence of bruising physicality, lighting speed, and a scorers touch. Which has come at an ample time during what was a Blue Jackets slump just on the other side of the trading deadline, and a team-wide offensive slump that busted with Anderson doing a lot of heavy lifting in a career-best performance, four point night, against the Bruins in a 7-4 win last Tuesday.

Some might say Artemi Panarin is Columbus’ best player with his elite game-breaking talent, Cam Atkinson for his scoring ability and overall maturation into a complete player, and those people are not wrong. But Anderson is tapping into another level. Andy’s 24 goals is third on the team, he’s top five in points (41), and is co-leading the club with 58 penalty minutes. He’s also just the second Blue Jackets player with at least 200 shots on goal (207) and his 11.6 shooting percentage ranks him top five on the Jackets.

John Tortorella said of Anderson last week “I’d like to see him lead the way, as far as how you play.”

Over this last week, including that 4-1 win against Pittsburgh last Saturday which Tortorella dropped that line about wanting to see Andy lead, he has six points (two goals, four assists) over the five games.

Josh Anderson with Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel 5v5

Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	GP	TOI	CF	CA	CF%	FF	FA	FF%	SF	SA	SF%	GF	GA	GF%	SCF	SCA	SCF%	HDCF	HDCA	HDCF%	HDGF	HDGA	HDGF%	On-Ice SH%	On-Ice SV%	PDO	Off. Zone Faceoffs	Neu. Zone Faceoffs	Def. Zone Faceoffs	Off. Zone Faceoff %
Josh Anderson	Ryan Dzingel	Matt Duchene	11	47:04	49	56	46.67	40	49	44.94	32	39	45.07	4	0	100	30	31	49.18	13	12	52.00	3	0	100.00	12.50	100	1.125	18	8	15	54.55

Said Ryan Dzingel on Anderson: “He’s north-south and he’s always skating and makes it easy for us. Having a forecheck, no one wants to go back an get pucks.”

"We knew they would have a good push. We stayed on our toes and played like we'd been playing." - @RyanDzingel pic.twitter.com/9A9oOTwWVt

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) March 13, 2019

Josh Anderson with Nick Foligno and Boone Jenner 5v5

Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	GP	TOI	CF	CA	CF%	FF	FA	FF%	SF	SA	SF%	GF	GA	GF%	SCF	SCA	SCF%	HDCF	HDCA	HDCF%	HDGF	HDGA	HDGF%	On-Ice SH%	On-Ice SV%	PDO	Off. Zone Faceoffs	Neu. Zone Faceoffs	Def. Zone Faceoffs	Off. Zone Faceoff %
Josh Anderson	Boone Jenner	Nick Foligno	61	478:13	459	469	49.46	353	357	49.72	260	257	50.29	25	17	59.52	208	204	50.49	82	78	51.25	17	7	70.83	9.62	93.39	1.030	137	233	195	41.27

I remember when Josh Anderson was holding out prior to the 2017-18 season and the message, from Torts, was put out there that the team was ready to roll on with, or without, Anderson as the season drew nearer. Obviously, the coaching staff has to say that. It was my second article for The Cannon that I included that bit.

We give flack to Tortorella for his player usage or frosty relationships that there seem to be with certain players. A frosty relationship that might be more attributed as outside perception. Like we saw more of an affectionate side for Anthony Duclair following his trade to the Senators. In Andy, we've seen the overall player on-the-ice maturation process play out, and with other certain players, for whatever reason, that hasn’t always been the case. Josh Anderson and John Tortorella weren’t necessarily heading the way of another player that held out a few years earlier, in Ryan Johansen, but there could have been that frostiness with Tortorella if things didn’t resolve just in time ahead of that season.

Purely speculative on my part, but just saying because certain players have thrived under Torts, and some haven’t.

The criticism for Anderson has been there, just like any player. But Anderson also told Torts before the season that he wanted more feedback, a weekly check-in. The scoring was coming but the mindset that there was more to give was still the common thought. And now the consistency has begun to set in during the Jackets’ most critical juncture of the season.

In that article Sept. 15 2017 article, I also included this at the time:

“The Jackets have just under $8 million in available cap space. Then, of course, there’s the ongoing Matt Duchene, will he be traded or not, saga. Duchene ended his own holdout Thursday. While GM Joe Sakic continues to evaluate possible trade scenarios, could this Anderson situation spill back into a potential Duchene addition? Stay tuned.

TIE GAME. Nick Foligno and Josh Anderson came to play tonight. pic.twitter.com/O5FPa04iJQ

— The Cannon (@cbjcannon) February 20, 2019

With those pesky power plays out of the way, the #CBJ finally score 5v5 thanks to Josh Anderson: pic.twitter.com/Q7WzYAxrBe

— The Cannon (@cbjcannon) February 23, 2019

BOOOOONE finishes a beautiful pass from Anderson and it's 1-0 #CBJ! pic.twitter.com/LQiHeZoB2i

— The Cannon (@cbjcannon) February 23, 2019

Big Josh Anderson with a big goal in the first to pull the #CBJ even: pic.twitter.com/L4c0q84WRG

— The Cannon (@cbjcannon) March 12, 2019

Josh Anderson scores one of the rarest #CBJ goals you can see in the wild: the shorthanded, empty-net chili goal. pic.twitter.com/XosOIZ2GEE

— The Cannon (@cbjcannon) March 16, 2019