Perry Anderson
Perry was a great guy to have in the dressing room. He however wasn't exactly the greatest guy on the ice.
Anderson is best described as a role player. Anderson knew that role very well too. To fight. It seemed Anderson was looking for a fight every time he was on the ice, not that he got many minutes of playing time mind you. And he wasn't even that good of a fighter. He won a few, lost a few, but he showed up and stood up for the little guys on the team. He did his role to best of his ability.
Anderson was a poor skater and bad positional player. His lack of any speed or mobility lessened his contributions as he couldn't catch anyone to lay a thunderous hit with his 6'1" 225lb body.
Anderson started his career with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the CHL where for 2 seasons he put up good offensive numbers while playing aggressively. He was promoted to the NHL's St. Louis Blues full time in 1983-84 but he was there to fulfill the role of tough guy, a label that would stick with him for the rest of his career.
After two seasons playing for the Blue-Notes, Anderson was moved to New Jersey in exchange for defensive expert Rick Meagher. Anderson spent two years policing the Devils but spent the last two years of his tenure with the Devil's farm team in Utica.
The left winger who also was tried on defense had his NHL career lengthened by expansion. The San Jose Sharks signed him as a free agent for the 1991-92 season where he participated in 48 games. His last game in the NHL was his 400th career game. 400 NHL games is a magical number for pro hockey players as that means they will recieve a full pension at the conclusion of their playing days.
Anderson played a full season with the San Diego Gulls of the IHL before finishing his career with 2 games back in the city where his career began - Salt Lake - in 1993.
Anderson scored 50 career goals and 59 assists for 109 points in those 400 games. He added 1051 penalty minutes. He also played in 36 playoff games, netting 2 goals and 1 assist.
3 comments:
My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Perry this evening (so sorry to say that I didn't know who he was at the time). He graciously walked over and introduced himself while we were sitting at a little table in Chipotle's in Scottsdale after he'd seen us say a short prayer before eating. He is a good Christian man and we had a very nice chat for about 5-10 min. We exchanged names and a handshake as he was headed out. He new my pastor and told us to mention his name to him, "Perry Anderson the hockey player", he said. Sure hope to run into him again and continue our pleasant chat sometime.
Perry Anderson was actually a great skater with excellent speed! Not much else in the way of skills but skating and quickness was def. not an issue for him.
I will attest to that, I watched Perry play junior with the Kingston Canadians and he had excellent speed, besides being a very physical player. Got his share of points but I don't think he had good vision to create plays or see plays developing. I think he squeezed out every ounce of ability he had.
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