Josh Anderson scores and flattens D'Astous in Canadiens playoff opener
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Cimon Asselin
Apr 19, 2026 (7:22 PM)
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Photo credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images
Josh Anderson is making his presence felt early in this playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The big winger opened the scoring in Game 1 tonight with a wrist shot at 13:24 of the first period, then reminded everyone exactly what kind of player the Canadiens brought to this matchup.
Later in the second period, Anderson steamrolled Charle-Edouard D'Astous deep in Tampa Bay's zone, catching the Lightning blueliner with a crushing open-ice hit that sent a clear message through Amalie Arena.
The referee handed him two minutes for the contact. Anderson barely blinked.
His goal, his first of the playoffs, came off a feed from Alexandre Carrier and Michael Matheson. A clean wrist shot, no drama, 1-0 Canadiens. Just Anderson doing what Anderson does when he's playing with this kind of physical edge.
That combination, a goal and a bone-rattling hit in the same game, is exactly the version of Anderson that Montreal needs over the course of a seven-game series. He finished the regular season with 14 goals and 9 assists in 72 games, modest numbers on the surface. But the regular season never told the full story of his value.
Anderson's physicality puts Lightning defenders on notice early in series
This is his playoff role, and Martin St-Louis knows it. Anderson is not here to rack up points against Jon Cooper's team. He's here to make the Lightning pay a price every shift, to take up space, to make Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov think about what's coming when they're puck-watching in the offensive zone.
The Canadiens entered this series with identical points to Tampa Bay, both clubs finishing at 106 on the year. The Lightning won 50 games to Montreal's 48. On paper, this is a tight series.
Anderson's goal gave Montreal a 1-0 lead with Tampa Bay outshooting the Habs 11-5 through the first half of the second period. The Canadiens were playing with their backs against the wall shot-suppression wise, and the lead still stood.
That changes the dynamic of a building immediately. You ask any locker room in this league, and they'll tell you the same thing: a physical goal and a punishing hit early in Game 1 of a playoff series does something to the other team's back end.
The Lightning power play had two chances in the second period to erase that deficit. Both came up empty. Montreal's penalty kill absorbed all of it.
Anderson's regular-season production will never jump off the page. Fourteen goals over 72 games, a -4 rating, no power-play points. He's a bottom-six forward on a team built around Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky. His cap hit is $5.5 million through the term of his deal.
Whether that contract makes sense in July is a different conversation. Tonight, in Game 1 of the first round, Anderson looked like the player the Canadiens signed him to be.
The real question now is whether Montreal can survive on five shots through half a game and still protect a lead in one of the loudest barns in the league.
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