The Colorado Avalanche: News from around the NHL - November 14th, 2013

Milan Hejduk is giving interviews about his health, and his upcoming announcement on his retirement.

Hejduk said he's healthy now, and leaving hockey will allow him to stay that way.

"In normal life my knees are fine," he said. "That is the other reason why I quit. I did not want to ruin my health. In the recent years I have taken painkillers all the time, which was not ideal. There is life after hockey too. For example, I want to do some skiing. The (skiing) season here is starting just now."

The youth hockey season also is underway. Hejduk and his wife live in the Denver area. His sons David and Marek play hockey and Hejduk coaches their peewee team.

"I am on the ice every day," he said. "I train the guys, try to teach them some things. To be honest I can't say I miss [pro] hockey."

Ted Nolan has come to terms with the Sabres.

So Ron Rolston is gone as Buffalo Sabres’ head coach, replaced by a blast from the past, Ted Nolan, and we are thus able to update a truly stunning statistic:

Of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League, 11 either fired a head coach prior to the lockout — meaning his replacement didn’t actually coach a game until 2013 — or have jettisoned one since the start of the calendar year.

In alphabetical order: Buffalo, Colorado, Dallas, Edmonton, Florida, Montreal, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Tampa, Vancouver, Washington.

That’s basically 37% New (or Used) Kids On The Block in less than 10 months’ worth of coaching hockey games.

Two men have been arrested for swindling money out of current and former NHL'ers.

Two con men cheated several former and current National Hockey League players out of at least $15 million by persuading them to invest in a phony Hawaiian real estate venture and other scams, then diverting the funds into their own pockets, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Financial adviser Philip Kenner used the players’ money to make his own investment in a tequila company in Mexico, investigators wrote in court papers. Former race car driver Tommy Constantine took money to finance racing teams in California, they added.

“Kenner exploited his personal relationships with these players in pursuit of his own lucre,” George Venizelos, head of the New York FBI office, said in a statement announcing the arrests.

A preview for the Avalanche - Blues game.

Colorado's 1.76 goals-against average is one of the best in the league, and it has surrendered two goals or fewer in nine of its last 10 games. Starter Semyon Varlamov has a 1.49 GAA in four road games while backup Jean-Sebastien Giguere has a 1.00 GAA and two shutouts in going 5-0-0 overall.

Varlamov stopped 26 of 28 shots Tuesday in Carolina, yet it wasn't enough as the Avalanche fell 2-1 for their first defeat in seven road games.

Colorado managed 34 shots, but after scoring four goals in each of their last four games, only Paul Stastny tallied.

"We just didn't execute around the net, and I thought that was the only thing that was missing because we had a lot of chances," coach Patrick Roy said.

Stastny's score was his seventh of the season and gave him six goals and three assists in his last eight games.