Habs’ Josh Anderson avoided career-ending catastrophe last night!

The Montreal Canadiens not only got a huge 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night, but also entered the playoff picture with a real chase to fight for a spot in the postseason.

Those were great reasons to celebrate after the game in the dressing room, but veteran forward Josh Anderson had one more. Sure, he was excited about recording two goals in the Habs’ victory, but more especially, he felt lucky to be standing.
Anderson wore cut resistant pants for the first time last night and averted a catastrophic injury, when Senators’ Shane Pinto’s blade sliced into his lower leg. There is no damage done to the achilles.

One day earlier, on Monday at Bell Centre, the Canadiens had their team photo and practiced afterward, and Anderson was given a new pair of underpants to wear by equipment manager Patrick Langlois.

Anderson decided to wear them for the game against Ottawa, and Arpon Basu of the Athletic spoke with him after catastrophe was avoided.

“First game that I wore the pants today,” Anderson said. “I was very fortunate.”

Here’s the replay of Anderson nearly being cut. The incident with Pinto was not disastrous because the Habs’ forward was wearing the new pants:

The career-ending catastrophe was avoided on the same day that New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald made an emotional pleaded at the general managers’ meeting for making neck protection mandatory in the NHL after his son, Casey, had a scary cut to his neck in an AHL game that required 25 stitches.

We also cannot forget how Adam Johnson of the Nottingham Panthers was struck by an opponent’s skate blade in the Elite Ice Hockey League game at Sheffield’s home arena in central England on Oct, 28. During the play, Johnson was skating with the puck toward the Steelers’ net. Matt Petgrave skated toward Johnson and collided with one of his teammates. Then upon the collision, Petgrave’s left skate kicked up as he falls and the blade hit Johnson in the neck. Johnsson got up on his own and was helped off the ice, his jersey is covered in blood. He unfortunately died as a result of a fatal neck injury.

Despite the tragedy, very few players have stuck with the neck protection in the NHL.
Imagine if Anderson had decided not to wear the pants. This is just an amazing story.