MONTREAL — Josh Anderson is coming to Montreal with a massive chip on his shoulder, which won’t cause him nearly as much discomfort as the torn labrum he dealt with prior to season-ending surgery in March.
If you were wondering how scoring one goal and four points in 26 games this season sat with the six-foot-three, 222-pound power forward whom the Canadiens acquired via trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, the answer is: not very well.
“It was very frustrating,” Anderson said during his first conference call with Canadiens reporters following the trade that sent Max Domi and a third-round pick to Columbus. “It was a down year, and you never go into any year thinking that you’re going to get injured or things like that can happen. Obviously, in my contract year, it did. It started with Game 1, getting injured and me coming back early, which I said to myself I would never do again. And I got hurt again later on in the year and just decided that it was the best decision for myself to repair my labrum and make sure that I come back 100 per cent and have a long career.”
The Canadiens are banking on it. Just how much? We’ll find out in the coming days.
Anderson’s a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, a 26-year-old who’s a year away from being permitted to test the open market, and whatever leverage he had lost in negotiations with Columbus is now firmly on his side in negotiations with the Canadiens. They gave up a centre in Domi who’s out-scored and out-performed Anderson in the best—and even the worst—years of their respective careers, and they chucked the 78th pick in this year’s draft into the deal for good measure.
The Canadiens had to do it to address the most glaring need on their roster, and they should be commended for doing it, but it’s a move that highlights how valuable they think Anderson can be to them.
And so, they’ll pay. They’ll pay for what Anderson was over a year ago—when he scored 27 goals and 47 points—and not for what he was during this frustrating, injury-riddled season.
The Canadiens know where they stand.
“We obviously, before we make a trade, when somebody’s an RFA… it doesn’t take a genius to know where the money should fall in,” said GM Marc Bergevin on Tuesday. “So at the end of the day, we’ll be able to agree on a contract.”
They’ll buy up UFA years from him if they can, and they’ll pray that chip on his shoulder propels him to new heights.
For what it’s worth, Anderson believes it will. He said his biggest motivation, following the surgery to repair the labrum and clean up debris from a broken clavicle, is “just proving a lot of people wrong.”
“I’ve been doing that for my entire life,” the Burlington, Ont., native added. “I succeeded pretty good in my first three years in the league and then last year, with that down year and being injured and not being healthy, things happen like that…
“I’ve told many people this, I’ve never been more confident in myself. I’ve been working for this opportunity for eight months now, so I’m going to thrive off it and do some good things.”
That means Anderson taking advantage of his speed, his size, his physicality and his shot—the assets both he and the Canadiens believe make him a unique player.
That he’s thrilled to be in Montreal and willing to sign on for several years is Step 1.
“If it is a long-term extension, I’d be more than happy to be a Montreal Canadien long-term,” Anderson said. “They’ve got a pretty good team. They know how to win, which I love. They bleed success, they expect you to win. Just going around their team, just to start, they obviously have one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League with [Carey] Price. And then the players, you have [Paul] Byron, [Jonathan] Drouin, [Brendan] Gallagher, [Nick] Suzuki, [Tomas] Tatar, [Shea] Weber… the list goes on. They’ve got a great team and I’m looking forward to getting in there, meeting them all, and having success.”
With a clean slate, a clean bill of health, and that desire to silence his doubters, Anderson feels primed for it.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
