{"id":549680,"date":"2026-04-10T17:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549680\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:06:32","slug":"josh-anderson-sends-the-lightning-a-playoff-message-after-crushing-nikita-kucherov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549680\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Anderson sends the Lightning a playoff message after crushing Nikita Kucherov"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Montreal <\/p>\n

Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Thursday night\u2019s game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning had a clear playoff feel.<\/p>\n

And if there\u2019s one Canadiens player who made sure to set the tone for a potential first-round matchup, it was without question Josh Anderson.<\/p>\n

The imposing forward decided to take matters into his own hands physically\u2014and he didn\u2019t go after just anyone.<\/p>\n

Anderson delivered a crushing hit on Tampa Bay star Nikita Kucherov, knocking him solidly to the ice.<\/p>\n

He effectively took him out of the game, as Kucherov was very quiet afterward.<\/p>\n

Of course, targeting the opposing team\u2019s best player comes with consequences.<\/p>\n

Lightning defenseman Declan Carlile stepped in to defend his teammate by dropping the gloves with Canadiens number 17.<\/p>\n

He quickly regretted it, as he was soundly beaten by the big Montreal winger.<\/p>\n

Josh Anderson sends a clear playoff warning to Lightning after Kucherov hit and Carlile fight<\/p>\n

As Anthony Marcotte perfectly summed up on X: “Josh Anderson levels Kucherov and delivers a decisive beating to Carlile.<\/p>\n

The horse is in playoff mode.”<\/p>\n

This sequence is far from insignificant.<\/p>\n

Given the current Atlantic Division standings, the Canadiens and Lightning could very well meet in the first round of the playoffs in just a few weeks.<\/p>\n

By physically targeting Tampa Bay\u2019s offensive leader and decisively winning his fight, Anderson sent a very clear message inside the opposing locker room.<\/p>\n

Kucherov has to be hoping he doesn\u2019t face the Canadiens in a few weeks.<\/p>\n

If the two teams do meet to open the playoffs, Jon Cooper\u2019s players know full well that Josh Anderson won\u2019t be giving anything away on the ice.<\/p>\n

This is exactly the kind of physical play Martin St-Louis\u2019 group will need to withstand the intensity of the NHL playoffs.<\/p>\n

Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

20 MINUTES AGO|38 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Josh Anderson sends the Lightning a playoff message after crushing Nikita Kucherov<\/p>\n

Are you reassured to see Josh Anderson elevating his physical play as the playoffs approach?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images Thursday night\u2019s game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[20414,265,10106,5,783,264,21,5147,4,1335,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-549680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-anthony-marcotte","9":"tag-canadiens","10":"tag-declan-carlile","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-josh-anderson","13":"tag-montreal","14":"tag-montreal-canadiens","15":"tag-montrealcanadiens","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-nikita-kucherov","18":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116381509467303348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}