Not so long ago, Josh Anderson’s name was on everyone’s lips in Montreal, but not for the right reasons. He had a tough season last year, and many called him washed up and overpriced, suggesting he should be traded regardless of what the return offered was.

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This season, however, he has fully embraced the new role Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis gave him. Skating alongside Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak, the line became a picture of consistency and energy.

Late in the campaign, it was apparent that Anderson was nursing an injury, taking treatment days instead of practices almost daily. Still, he never slowed down. He kept on being a human wrecking ball, throwing that big body of his around like there was no tomorrow.

Anderson has stood tall since the start of the playoffs, and with the Washington Capitals roughing up the Habs every chance they get, he has been a rock for the Habs. He has 16 hits in three games and doesn’t pick his victims or back down in front of big guys. In comparison, for all the talk about Tom Wilson’s physicality, the Caps’ gritty winger only has 10 hits.

Still, Wilson talks a big game and has an imposing presence, but Anderson is going at it with him blow for blow, as evidenced by the “near fight” on the Capitals’ bench last night. When Captain Nick Suzuki had to give the game puck to the man of the match, it was Anderson who gave it to him.

As the Habs players call him, Randy didn’t have a point and finished the game with a minus-one rating, but he led his teammates into battle quite literally. He brought the opponent’s chief agitator to the penalty box for half of the third period, and even longer than that, since it took quite some time for play to stop and Wilson and Anderson to be able to exit the box and get back to their respective benches. Suzuki giving him the puck was the equivalent of the media members voting him the Jacques Beauchamp Trophy winner as the team’s unsung hero.

On Saturday morning, Wilson and Anderson were fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA for unsportsmanlike conduct. Still, I bet Anderson and his teammates feel it was money well spent to give the Habs the boost they needed to grab a first win in this series.

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