Josh Anderson drops gloves after Jack Hughes hit sparks heated Canadiens-Devils scrum

The sequence started with Arber Xhekaj and Anderson closing fast on Hughes, and it didn't stay a clean hockey play for long.

Once Hughes got squeezed in traffic, the temperature jumped right away.

That's where Anderson took over.

He went straight into the aftermath, dropped the gloves with Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon, and changed the tone of the night in a hurry.

It wasn't a long bout, but it was a nasty one. Anderson landed clean, Dillon was left bloodied, and both benches knew the game had crossed into a different lane.

Montreal has leaned on Anderson for straight-line pressure all season, and this was that role at full volume.

Xhekaj's part mattered too. He finished the check from one side, Anderson arrived from the other, and Hughes was the player caught in the middle of it all.

The clip tells the story in one shot: Hughes gets crushed from both directions, spins off balance, and the scrum starts almost before he hits the ice.

This is why St. Louis keeps trusting Anderson in hard minutes.

For Montreal, that edge still has value in a tight stretch.

New Jersey didn't like any of it, and Sheldon Keefe's group had every reason to push back.

That's why the Anderson response stood out.

He didn't just join the noise. He made sure Montreal wasn't the team getting pushed around after a dangerous-looking collision involving one of the Devils' biggest stars.

Anderson isn't in the lineup to play quiet hockey. On this shift, with Hughes flattened and Dillon cut up after the fight, he looked like the emotional spark St. Louis keeps going back to.