Colorado Avalanche: News from around the NHL September 8th, 2014

Kontiola signed with the Leafs.

Every now and then, he would get asked about it. Someone — a teammate, a journalist, a person he met on the street — would look at Petri Kontiola and wonder what happened. Why did the top forward in the 2013 world championship, an offensive playmaker who led club teams in Finland and in Russia in scoring, last just 12 games in the NHL?

Why didn’t it work out? Was he too small? Were his skills not good enough?

Kontiola’s standard answer was that he didn’t want to talk about it. It was in the past, he would say. He had moved on. But as the years went on, he began to ask himself those same questions.

With his 30th birthday approaching, Kontiola finally said enough was enough. He didn’t want to keep ignoring the past. Didn’t want to wake up one day and realize he had regrets but that it was too late for him to do anything about it.

Beliveau is recovering from pneumonia.

Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Béliveau is recovering at home after suffering from pneumonia, his wife Élise Béliveau told the Montreal Gazette on Sunday.

Élise Béliveau told the paper she was surprised to learn from a friend that one French-language internet report listed her 83-year-old husband in critical condition last week.

In a tweet, Béliveau was described as being “very ill,” and reported his dramatic weight loss in graphic detail, according to the paper.

“I just thought: ‘What the heck is that?’ Élise Béliveau, who has been married to Jean Béliveau for 61 years, told the paper. “Jean has been sick. He’s had pneumonia, he’s recuperating from it, he has his good days and his bad days and that’s it.”

Danton was involved in a bench-clearing brawl.

As the following benches-clearing brawl between KH Sanok and Podhale in the Polish Hokej Liga (Polish Hockey League) begins, please take note of No. 34 on the blue team.

That’s Mike Danton, the infamous former National Hockey League who spent 63 months in jail for conspiracy to commit murder. He signed there last season, won a championship with the team and as you can see he’s rather enthusiastic about sticking up for his teammates.

Here’s what happened after Jordan Knox of Sanok was run from behind by a Podhale player. The brawl goes for the first few minutes of the clip, including a goalie fight; at around the nine-minute mark, you see business pick up again as the players attempt to leave the ice after the game was called, just 39 minutes into the contest with Sanok up 3-0.