The Canadiens can enjoy Josh Anderson’s hot start, but they also need to be ready for the other shoe to drop.
Anderson has been one of Montreal’s brightest early-season sparks, and he kept it rolling Wednesday night with two goals in a 5-4 loss to the Washington Capitals. It was the second straight game in which the veteran winger found the back of the net, and through seven games he’s become a major part of the offense.
The numbers jump out fast. Anderson has four goals and two assists for six points, tying him with captain Nick Suzuki for the team lead in goals and putting him third on the Canadiens in points. He’s had a hand in 28.5% of Montreal’s 21 goals so far this season.
That’s a big shift from last year, when he factored into just 8.2% of the 279 goals the Canadiens scored. He’s also tracking far above his recent scoring pace: he averaged 0.32 points per game in 2025-26, while his current 0.85 points per game pace in 2026-27 would project to 72 points over 84 games and 48 goals.
Those would both be career highs by a mile. Anderson’s best offensive season came in 2018-19 with the Columbus Blue Jackets, when he put up 27 goals and 47 assists - the numbers that eventually convinced Montreal to send Max Domi the other way. He hasn’t been close to that level since, aside from 21 goals in 2022-23.
That doesn’t make his current burst any less useful. Right now, he’s giving life to an offense that would be in a tougher spot without him.
The question is whether this is the start of something bigger or just a loud early stretch. Seven games is still a tiny sample, and if Anderson is still doing this around American Thanksgiving or later, then there’s a real conversation to have.
Montreal has seen this sort of thing before. Last season, Anderson ripped off an eight-game run in November with six points, including four goals. Over his other 51 games, he managed 15 points, and one-fifth of that total came in a single three-point outing.
For the Canadiens, the message is simple: take the production now and keep banking it while it’s there. They can’t afford to go without offense like this.
Anderson isn’t the only reason Montreal has leaned on him. Other important players have either started slowly or been unavailable altogether.
Juraj Slafkovsky has had a quiet opening stretch, though he did have a solid night against Buffalo recently. Ivan Demidov has played only two games, and Oliver Kapanen has not yet appeared this season.
Even if Slafkovsky finds another gear and Demidov gets back to full health, the Canadiens will still want Anderson producing. If his pace cools off, more help from the rest of the lineup becomes even more important.
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What makes the situation more notable is that his name is no longer being framed only around on-ice production. Reports have suggested a trade is becoming a more realistic possibility, with other teams showing interest as Montreal weighs its options. For a player still in the middle of establishing his place with the Canadiens, that kind of attention adds another layer to an already uneasy stretch. [Read more 🡒]