NHL goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks dead at 24 from apparent head injury

[Rex Racer]

(CNN)Matiss Kivlenieks, goaltender for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League, died Sunday night after an accident involving fireworks at a private party in Novi, Michigan, which led to a fall, according to Novi Police Department Lieutenant Jason Meier.
Novi Fire and Paramedics were dispatched for an injury call at 10:13pm, Meier said.
According to Meier, there seemed to be a fireworks malfunction that sent the fireworks in the direction of people. Kivlenieks, 24, and others were in a hot tub, and when they tried to leave the hot tub, Kivlenieks slipped, fell, and hit his head on the concrete, Meier added. Kivlenieks was transported to Ascension Providence Hospital in Novi and pronounced dead, Meier said.
"It's still an active investigation, but we're treating it as a tragic accident," Meier said.
The Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office is currently performing an autopsy on Kivlenieks and expects to have the cause of death later this afternoon, according to Investigator Jeff Collins.

 

[Rex Racer]

Sad news for sure, 24 years young and tragedy struck him down. I don't follow the Blue jackets so I'd never heard of the kid, but my heart goes out to his family and the Columbus Hockey community. Unreal

 

[beardown07]

Goddamn my overly vivid imagination.


Just awful.

 

[Mofo]

Ouch. Move over, Jason Pierre-Paul.
He didn’t hit his head on concrete “running from the hot tub” as previously reported. He was struck in the chest with a mortar:

Jackets' Kivlenieks, 24, dies in fireworks accident

Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks has died after suffering chest trauma from an errant fireworks blast. He was 24.

www.espn.com

 

[KTg8trgrl]

That is horrible.. same age as my kids.. I can't even imagine

 

[Rex Racer]

Ouch. Move over, Jason Pierre-Paul.
He didn’t hit his head on concrete “running from the hot tub” as previously reported. He was struck in the chest with a mortar:

Jackets' Kivlenieks, 24, dies in fireworks accident

Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks has died after suffering chest trauma from an errant fireworks blast. He was 24.

www.espn.com

CNN is wrong again?

Seriously though, I'm all for having the freedom to light off some damn big fireworks, but who the hell does it in such close proximity to the bystanders that will be watching? I've been to several amateur fireworks displays in New Boston and the two brothers that throw the yearly party have an elevated clearing in the woods behind their house that is at least a hundred yards from the party goers and they left a pretty thick tree line between the launch pad and the house for safety. No one goes to the launch site except the two brothers.

This just changed from a tragic accident to a tragically stupid accident

 

[Illustrious Potentate]

When I was a teenager, one of my more retarded cousins put in a firework upside down in the tube or got it wedged in or something because it didn't launch, blew off a section of railing on our back deck and knocked a couple holes in the siding. Lucky as hell that some ringer ears was the only damage done to any people.

I once burned my left hand pretty badly when I didn't screw in the back of the hair spray tank tightly enough on a homemade potato gun. Put the ignitor on the top instead of on the cap at the back on the next one.

RIP. Sucks to lose someone that young

 

[Me]

Sad news for sure, 24 years young and tragedy struck him down. I don't follow the Blue jackets so I'd never heard of the kid, but my heart goes out to his family and the Columbus Hockey community. Unreal

He was going to be our backup this year once we trade Korpi. He spent most of his career so far in the AHL, with some occasional appearances with the main club

 

[Rex Racer]

He was going to be our backup this year once we trade Korpi. He spent most of his career so far in the AHL, with some occasional appearances with the main club

I've been catching up on his career as more news comes out about his death. He was 5+ years younger than my youngest and if anything bad happened to my kids I'd lose my shit.

 

[Mofo]

CNN is wrong again?

Seriously though, I'm all for having the freedom to light off some damn big fireworks, but who the hell does it in such close proximity to the bystanders that will be watching? I've been to several amateur fireworks displays in New Boston and the two brothers that throw the yearly party have an elevated clearing in the woods behind their house that is at least a hundred yards from the party goers and they left a pretty thick tree line between the launch pad and the house for safety. No one goes to the launch site except the two brothers.

This just changed from a tragic accident to a tragically stupid accident

No one likes to talk ill of the dead? Yes, it was an "early report" that turned out wrong, probably because no one wanted to believe that a death of a pro athlete could be anything but his own fault.

Seeing the phrasing "fireworks malfunction" is pretty telling, also. Mortars are incredibly dangerous. Users are recommended to shoot them out of cinder blocks or something solid, not set them on <maybe level> ground and then light them from inches away. It's not just possible that, at some point, one will tip over and fire into a building or people- it's likely.

 

[Rex Racer]

No one likes to talk ill of the dead? Yes, it was an "early report" that turned out wrong, probably because no one wanted to believe that a death of a pro athlete could be anything but his own fault.

Seeing the phrasing "fireworks malfunction" is pretty telling, also. Mortars are incredibly dangerous. Users are recommended to shoot them out of cinder blocks or something solid, not set them on <maybe level> ground and then light them from inches away. It's not just possible that, at some point, one will tip over and fire into a building or people- it's likely.

It was a gratuitous dig at CNN, I understand that all of the early reports were saying the head injury was the cause of death.

I'll just reiterate what I said a several comments ago, I value the freedom to play with the big fireworks, but they are not toys and they need to be treated like the deadly explosives they can be when mishandled.

 

[DraftNerd]

CNN is wrong again?

Seriously though, I'm all for having the freedom to light off some damn big fireworks, but who the hell does it in such close proximity to the bystanders that will be watching? I've been to several amateur fireworks displays in New Boston and the two brothers that throw the yearly party have an elevated clearing in the woods behind their house that is at least a hundred yards from the party goers and they left a pretty thick tree line between the launch pad and the house for safety. No one goes to the launch site except the two brothers.

This just changed from a tragic accident to a tragically stupid accident

Yes, along with all other outlets initially. What was coming from the authorities was they expected the autopsy to show head trauma from falling and hitting his head. It wasn’t until later that they came out and said chest trauma. (Sweet Jesus!!)

Im not relishing any perception I’m leaving of white knighting CNN….I would sooner drags my nuts across glass and into a pool of lemon juice. But….that’s how this one played out.

Very much a tragedy. I can’t stop thinking “why not just duck down in the hot tub”? Ha

 

[Rex Racer]

Yes, along with all other outlets initially. What was coming from the authorities was they expected the autopsy to show head trauma from falling and hitting his head. It wasn’t until later that they came out and said chest trauma. (Sweet Jesus!!)

Im not relishing any perception I’m leaving of white knighting CNN….I would sooner drags my nuts across glass and into a pool of lemon juice. But….that’s how this one played out.

Very much a tragedy. I can’t stop thinking “why not just duck down in the hot tub”? Ha

Yeah, duck down into the tub was a winner among my friends.

 

[DraftNerd]

Yeah, duck down into the tub was a winner among my friends.

I get that there is surely the impediment of alcohol involved in split second decisions….and even without humans do odd things when thrown into flight mode. But, still…..duck down….

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

I let my 9yo and 5yo light off some fireworks last night including some mortars with me RIGHT there with them. Every once in a while they will watch some hockey with me, so I used this as an opportunity to stress how dangerous some fireworks can be.

RIP Kivlenieks

 

[Rex Racer]

I get that there is surely the impediment of alcohol involved in split second decisions….and even without humans do odd things when thrown into flight mode. But, still…..duck down….

Could be that his instincts as a goalie was to try to block the mortar for the benefit of his friends in the tub, could be that he was drinking to much and had no idea what he was doing

Either way tragic mistakes abound and here we are discussing the death of a youngster.

 

[oh-jay-bee eighty-one]

damn, that's just terrible to read. a weekend that should be about celebration and fun, and now a family has lost their loved one and have to bury him, over some stupid shit. My heart goes out to his family and friends, may he rest in peace.