Avs head coach Jared Bednar has candid response on Stars Game 5 antics

Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar was in a sharing mood on Tuesday.

And you can tell he wasn’t real happy with the officiating in Colorado’s Game 5 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday night.

The Avs got outplayed in the 6-2 blowout, but there were a couple of key moments that helped swing the contest.

After Colorado made it 3-2 in the second period, Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski got called for a questionable elbowing penalty that put the Stars on the power play. They scored to make it 4-2, added another one to make it 5-2 quickly after and you could tell it was over.

Then, to add insult to injury, Dallas captain Jamie Benn ran into the stick of Avs defenseman Josh Manson and flopped. That drew another penalty early in the third period, and social media was ablaze discussing what a bad look it was from Benn.

Jared Bednar addressed that and more at his press conference on Tuesday afternoon and his answer was a candid one.

"Yeah, I have lots of thoughts about it. Look at how physical they're playing as a team, and then look at guys hitting the ice… If you're going to play that physical then I think you have be ready to fight through things at the same time" pic.twitter.com/G3xqh31rJo

— Jesse Montano (@jessemontano_) April 29, 2025

What Bednar is basically saying is if the Stars want to play physical, they should save their dramatic acting skills every time the Avalanche do the same. And while the head coach hasn’t minded the officiating for most of the series, you could tell he wasn’t a fan of it in Game 5.

“I didn’t like the way the game was officiated the other night,” Jared Bednar said. “We regroup and go again and we’ll get two new officials next game.”

The NHL clearly needs to tell whoever officiates Game 6 to watch for the Stars flopping around like fish. Jared Bednar didn’t take it quite the far, but you can sense he feels the same way.

Regardless, the Avalanche have to win on Thursday night at Ball Arena to save their season and force a Game 7. Let’s hope however it shakes out, the refs aren’t as big of a story postgame.

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