Blue Jackets hockey president says sudden death of goalkeeper has far-reaching implications

COLUMBUS Matiss Kivlenieks traveled to Michigan with teammate and close friend Elvis Merzlikins for the wedding of the daughter of Columbus Blue Jackets goalkeeper Manny Legace and the July 4th party.

The festive weekend ended in tragedy on Sunday night when a 24-year-old Latvian goalkeeper who spent the summer in the United States was killed in a freak fireworks accident at Legace House in Novi, Michigan, in the northern suburbs of Detroit.

Now the organization in which he played his career since the beginning of 2017 is a grief, working with his family in Latvia by arranging memorial services and making mental health counselors available to those in need, said Blue Davets President John Davidson. hockey.

“This has far-reaching implications,” Davidson said Wednesday. “This was Manny’s daughter’s wedding, and all those people were there and this tragedy happened. We have to deal with it, we have to deal with it the right way, which I’m very sure of.”

Kivlenieks was fatally injured when he hit the slope with the wrong fireworks while trying to get out of the hot tub, police said. The mortar tube tilted and angled toward Kivlenieks, who had been in a hot tub near the pool. The explosion hit him in the chest, police said.

The investigation is still ongoing and the police have not yet issued a report or indicated who was responsible for the fireworks. The investigator determined that Kivlenieks’ death was due to a fireworks explosion. According to preliminary reports, he fell and hit his head as he tried to leave the hot tub.

Davidson said this has been particularly difficult for Merzlikins, who is also Latvian and his wife Aleksandra.

“They were Kivi’s closest friends, and they were with him that night,” Davidson said. “This is a devastating loss for them and for all of us who are always with us.”

Legace, a 48-year-old former NHL goalkeeper who played mostly in the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues during his 11-year career, coached Kivlenieks throughout his professional career. A young player from Riga signed with Columbus with an untreated free agent on May 25, 2017.

Kivlenieks has played in 85 matches at Cleveland Monsters, a subsidiary of the team in the American Hockey League, and eight matches at the Blue Jackets over the past two seasons. He was considered No. 3 Blue Jackets goalkeeper and No. 2 candidate if trading with Joonas Korpisalo or Merzlikins, which is generally expected.

“I think the players who played with him said it best that he always came on the field with a smile on his face and very positively,” Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen said. “We had watched him play (in the U.S. Hockey League) and thought a lot about his potential, and much of that was his attitude.”

Blue Jackets hired Davidson as president of hockey in 2012. He spent the last two years in the same position at the New York Rangers before he was fired and then Columbus hired him back. He recalls meeting the big-eyed Kivlenieks four years ago when the goalkeeper was signed, and then followed his adulthood in victory over Davidson’s Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

Blue Jackets goalkeeper nursing staff Kivlenieks made their NHL debut on January 19, 2020. He stopped 31 of 32 shots to beat the Rangers 2-1.

“It was especially interesting to watch the young man play,” said former goalkeeper Davidson. “He passed the test in a hard building that is one of the largest sports buildings in the world. And that’s something that’s on his resume forever. “

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