Colorado Avalanche forward facing likely suspension for charging on Erik Cernak

The Colorado Avalanche are already down on troops, and now 24-year old Matt Stienburg may be the latest absence from this team as he now faces the consequences for an unnecessary hit against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

This season has been a nightmare for the Colorado Avalanche, and with the team missing six of their top nine forwards, they've resorted to using a defenseman up front with Oliver Kylington making his first professional start as a forward.

Now, they've got some issues coming out of that matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning as well, as young forward Matt Stienburg now faces a potential suspension after he received a penalty and a game misconduct for this hit on veteran forward Erik Cernak.

The play looked bad and unnecessary in real time, and now the NHL's Department of Player Safety has confirmed that he will have a hearing to determine his fate after the play.

If he does indeed miss time, this would mark seven forwards that the Avalanche have lost this season, and with Kylington already playing up front and the likes of Nikolai Kovalenko and Ivan Ivan in the top-six, the nightmare would continue for Colorado. Stienburg was a third-round pick of the Avalanche in 2019, and made his NHL debut this season, playing in 8 games this year while recording no points, and while he hasn't produced, he's done a solid job of helping this team simply get bodies up front.

It's unclear how big of a suspension he faces for this play, but on viewing of the hit, it's likely going to cost him at least a few games, and with the Avalanche already struggling to ice a forward group, this is going to make life that much harder for Head Coach Jared Bednar.

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