In the Habs room: 'Hard to get booed,' admits Nick Suzuki

Disgruntled fan throws jersey on ice after the Canadiens’ 4-1 loss to Avalanche on Thursday night at the Bell Center.

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Pat hickey • Montreal Gazette

Canadiens’ Josh Anderson (17) is crashed into the draw by Avalanche’s Kurtis MacDermid during the second period Thursday night. Anderson was injured on the play and is expected to miss two to four weeks. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

Booing is one thing, but you have to be very unhappy with your gear when you throw a $ 200 jersey on the ice.

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That’s what a disgruntled fan did in the latter stages of the Canadiens’ 4-1 loss to Colorado. Avalanche Thursday night at the Bell Center.

“I saw it and it’s not a good feeling for the players,” Nick Suzuki said. “It was one of my t-shirts. I’m not sure, but I think I saw a 4. It’s hard to get booed, but fans want to see wins. They are used to productive teams and we are not doing it now. I can definitely see why they are getting mad. “

Coach Dominique Ducharme was hesitant to discuss the incident before saying “I love that jersey. I’m proud of it.”

Jeff Gorton, the man who has been accused of trading the Canadiens, had his first live look at his new team and had a reason to smile.

The loss reduced the Canadiens’ record to 6-17-2 and they have the third-worst winning percentage in the NHL. Each loss increases Montreal’s chances of landing a high pick in the NHL draft lottery.

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The Canadiens entered this game low-handed and came out with another hole in the lineup.

Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku tested positive for COVID-19 and a second positive test on Thursday means they will be in quarantine for at least 10 days.

And Ducharme said Josh Anderson will be out of the lineup for two to four weeks after sustaining an upper body injury early in the second period. Anderson was losing his balance when Kurtis MacDermid pushed him to extremes.

This was another total failure of Montreal’s offense, which is ranked 28th in the league. Montreal managed just 20 shots when they faced Jonas Johansson, who was forced to take on the role of number one after Darcy Kuemper was injured in practice on Wednesday.

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Johansson gave up eight goals to the Maple Leafs on Wednesday in Toronto and that should have prompted the Canadiens to shoot a lot of pucks.

“That’s one of the main things we didn’t do,” Ryan Poehling said. “The coach said he’s a new kid and he gave up a lot last night. We have to keep sending disks to the network. When we got shots at the net, there were a lot of rebounds that spurted out, but they didn’t bounce our way. But we definitely didn’t get enough shots tonight. “

Montreal was outshot 13-4 in the first period, but Poehling thought the momentum turned in Colorado’s favor when Valeri Nichushkin scored a goal in the absence of players early in the second period.

“I think the first 10 minutes we played well,” Poehling said. “We closed them a little bit, but then we put it down and it felt a little different. There were times when we were good and there were times when we were bad. “

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The power play produced Montreal’s only goal from Ben Chiarot, but he also gave up the goal for lack of hands and Montreal had just two shots in five chances with the extra man.

Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Romanov also went to the locker room for repairs during the game, but were back in action. Romanov suffered a broken nose when he tried to hit Cale Makar in the first period and also managed to get Poehling out.

The Canadiens called up Laurent Dauphin from Laval after the game and he will travel with the team to Nashville for Saturday’s game against the Predators.

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