Thursday night saw the Columbus Blue Jackets (8-13-0) take on the Ottawa Senators (9-5-5) in the second meeting between the teams this season. The game was marked by yet another young player being called up to fill in for an injured veteran when Josh Anderson made his season debut to fill in the gap left by injured Jared Boll, who did not make the trip to Ottawa for the game.
Anderson, who currently plays in the AHL with the Springfield Falcons, is a young player who has been showing a lot of promise. This promise became evident in the shifts he put in, as his first shift in the NHL this season nearly, and should have, resulted in a goal when he made a pass across the crease to a wide open David Savard. He followed up every shift after that with hard skating, showing off his skating ability as he was able to beat multiple Senators players to the puck and force turnovers in the neutral zone and their defensive zone.
Anderson, a Canadian-born prospect from Burlington, Ontario, was drafted in 2012 by the Blue Jackets in the fourth round with the 95th overall pick. He spent his first junior season in the Ontario Junior Hockey League, playing for the Burlington Cougars, where he then moved on and played 191 times for the London Knights of the OHL and accumulating 122 points during the time (62 goals, 60 assists). After being drafted in the fourth round by Columbus, he was sent to the Springfield Falcons of the AHL and was a regular on the team in the 2014-15 season with 52 games and 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) to his name. Alongside the promise he has shown in these leagues is the fact that he played for Team Canada in the 2014 World Junior Championships, making seven appearances and scoring a goal in the process as Canada finished 4th. This season, Anderson is playing for the AHL affiliate of Columbus, the Lake Erie Monsters, and in eight games for Lake Erie has three goals and one assist.
Although he made six appearances in the NHL last season for Columbus, Friday night marked his season debut for the club and a possible door opening up for the young forward. This play resulted in him being in the line-up for a second consecutive game against the Nashville Predators (11-3-3), where Anderson was able to cap off another impressive performance with an assist on the first goal of the night.
Anderson showed in his time he played in both the OHL and AHL alike that he has loads of potential and could offer Columbus another young, hungry attitude to help the club take another step in the right direction. He was able to capitalize on the opportunity handed to him and this, in turn, resulted in him being in the line up again for the second consecutive night. Anderson has shown what he has to offer to the team, even in limited ice time, and should continue to do so and be rewarded with opportunities.
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