The Columbus Blue Jackets winger is on an insane scoring pace. Can he keep it up?
Through 19 games this year Josh Anderson has scored eight goals for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Quite an impressive start for the 23-year-old forward who’s career high in goals in a year is only 19. That mark came last year over the course of 63 games.
Anderson, alongside of Boone Jenner and Nick Foligno, has become the effective offensive power forward the team and fans hoped he would become. The grinding, physical line has found ways to score goals and contribute on all fronts for the CBJ.
Josh is on pace for 38 goals this year which would be an insane number of course. Can he keep up this pace? Probably not but a 30 goal season is well within reach. Anderson is only shooting at a 15% rate which is a sustainable number for him. His lifetime average is 11.8% and in the 2016-2017 season, he averaged a 14% shooting rate. Its very conceivable that he keeps up that rate.
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Anderson is also getting solid ice time with the aforementioned line and should continue to see his time on ice consistency stay around the 16 minute mark. That’s enough time per game to get a few quality shots on net and a few of them will find the back of the net.
Finally, Anderson should be able to rack up a decent chunk of empty net goals which should help him out in his race toward 30 goals. Anderson, along with Foligno and Jenner find themselves out on the ice as time is expiring because of their defensive prowess.
Whether you discredit empty netters or not, they still count on the score sheet and I would argue they are just as important as any other goal as they effectively seal the deal. Anderson who has already scored two empty netters, should be able to tack on a handful of these goals as the season goes on to help increase his number.
Anderson’s start is a great sign for the Jackets and he shows no sign of slowing down. Josh reaching 38 goals this year is a bit of a stretch but 30 is well within his reach.