Colorado’s Matthew Stienburg Postponed Two Games, Reassigned

The Colorado Avalanche are losing another player up front, but this time it won’t be due to an injury. NHL Department of Player Safety announced They suspended Avalanche rookie forward Matthew Stienburg For two games to charge Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Černák in last night’s competition. Shortly after the suspension was made, Avalanche announced They had reassigned Stienburg to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.

The news came about seven hours later from the Department of Player Safety. shared Stienburg was scheduled to have a hearing on the incident. The discipline imposed by the Department of Player Safety is in addition to the on-ice referees’ five-minute major penalty and game misconduct against Stienburg.

In the video shared by the Department of Player Safety, the contributing factor to the penalty was that Stienburg turned his back to the hit and lifted himself off the ice, and the focus of the hit was Černák’s head. They also noted that Stienburg’s eight-game NHL experience played a role in the length of the suspension.

Since being recalled from AHL Colorado on October 16, he has been one of Colorado’s most physical players. Although he is only 16th in games played with eight goals, he is seventh on the team with 16 hits. As a result, he is first on the team in PIMs with 22 points, thanks to the illegal kick on Černák last night. According to Evan Rawal of The Denver GazetteStienburg must wait to serve his suspension before being recalled to the NHL.

The biggest implication of this suspension and subsequent demotion is that the Avalanche only have 10 healthy forwards and are set for a game against the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, Valerie Nichushkin, Ross ColtonAnd Jonathan Drouin All of them were shelved for one reason or another, and Colorado will have to draw on its organizational depth even further with Stienburg’s ouster.