Bednar calls out Eberle and Player Safety ahead of Game 7.

The Colorado Avalanche will be without the services of veteran forward Andrew Cogliano moving forward after he suffered a fractured neck courtesy of Seattle Kraken forward Jordan Eberle in Game 6. As you might imagine the Avalanche aren't very happy about this and are even less pleased with the National Hockey League after their Department of Player Safety declined to hand out any supplemental discipline for the hit.

On Sunday, just prior to the Avalanche and the Kraken facing off in the final game of the series, head coach Jared Bednar got real regarding the incident that has left his team without a valuable veteran presence in their forward group. To no one's surprise, Bednar felt there was no excuse for the hit that was delivered to Cogliano.

"I don't like the hit," said Bednar on Sunday. "From 5 years old you're wearing stop signs on your back on every jersey. It's numbers the whole way. He doesn't really ease off him."

Bednar also took aim at the Department of Player Safety, expressing disbelief at the fact that Eberle somehow avoided a suspension for injuring Cogliano in the manner that he did.

"There's more than one type of suspension hit," argued Bednar. "There's the predatory hit where the guy goes after someone from distance and hits him dirty. But there's also, in my opinion, watching and coaching the game ... there's also bad decisions. Sometimes they are split second, sometimes they take a little longer. Cale Makar for one. I don't think he's trying to take a run at (Jared) McCann, but the reality is he made a decision to finish him and there's no puck there. So it's a suspension. It is. And I think this [Eberle] one is the same way. His back is turned. He might be thinking he's going to turn so he can hit him clean, but he doesn't turn. It's a bad decision."

Unfortunately for Bednar and the Avalanche there will be no altering the outcome of that hit now, and they will have to face a Kraken team that will boast Jordan Eberle in their lineup this evening. All the while the Avalanche will have to hope they can get the job done in Game 7 without the services of Andrew Cogliano.