Blue Jackets remember Matiss Kivlenieks during season opener

The win secured, Elvis Merzlikins looked upward and pointed toward the heavens.
There was no mistaking the gesture that capped an emotional night in Nationwide Arena. Just over two hours earlier, the family of late Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks dropped the ceremonial first puck as part of a difficult but cathartic evening in the team's first game since his tragic passing.

His No. 80 was everywhere, from the "Kivi" shirts worn by fans throughout the arena to the stickers on the back of each player's helmet to the banner unveiled in the Nationwide Arena rafters. Nowhere was it more prevalent than in the orbit of Merzlikins, who wore a No. 80 jersey with Kivlenieks' name on it for warmups, then switched his jersey number from 90 to 80 during the game for one night only to celebrate his friend, brother and countryman.
It was a tremendous honor for Merzlikins to put on that sweater in tribute, but it came with plenty of nerves as well. How would he perform in his friend's memory? The advice he received from his wife, Aleksandra, was the same message CBJ goalie coach Manny Legace told Kivlenieks before his first-ever start two years ago in Madison Square Garden.
"Don't (screw) it up," she said.

After making 36 saves, then pointing to the sky in acknowledgment of Kivlenieks, in an 8-2 victory over Arizona last night in the season opener, it's fair to say Merzlikins held up his end of the bargain.
"It was my most important game," he said afterward. "I was obviously a little nervous because I didn't want to embarrass the number for my first and last game that I wear it here in Columbus. It was a hard start, but I am happy and I am proud of myself that mentally I could handle it.
"Obviously, the team helped me. They helped me right from the start. We knew (the Coyotes) were going to push because they are a really fast team. But our whole team -- forwards, defense, everybody -- they knew how important the game was for me so they were there for me."
Considering the bond between the two Latvian goalies, the emotion of the moment hit particularly hard for Merzlikins, but he was far from the only one to feel it. Kivlenieks played parts of the past two seasons with the Blue Jackets and to know the always smiling, always positive netminder was to like him, one reason his death hit the CBJ community with such force.
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Head coach Brad Larsen knew it be a difficult night to navigate, balancing the excitement of opening night, the importance of the game and the emotions of seeing Kivlenieks' family, a group that included his mother Astride, stepfather Artis and sister Madara.
"There is no playbook for it," said Larsen, who met with the team Wednesday to discuss the emotions the team might face. "You can talk about it, but until you go through it … because every guy is going through something different, too, from Elvis to even our goalie coach, Manny, to the players that were close (with Kivlenieks), maybe not as close and the new faces that were kind of oblivious to some of the stuff. There's such a different dynamic when you're going through that. There's no right words. That's why I wanted to talk about it yesterday and just try to get in front of it a little bit."

While the head coach said he didn't think the Blue Jackets played their best game despite the lopsided score, ultimately he was proud of the way the team came together throughout the night. Afterward, players from the team agreed that playing for Kivlenieks was a major part of the equation.
"That win was definitely for Matiss," Max Domi said. "It was an emotional summer, an emotional ceremony for everyone involved. Obviously to have his family here was something special. It's such a tough situation, but we had a chance to celebrate his life tonight. He was such an outstanding individual, an amazing human being who was so happy every single day. We miss him a lot, but that was for him tonight."
"We played for him tonight," Oliver Bjorkstrand added. "Obviously, it was very emotional with everything going on, but this was for him and I think we did a good job of finishing off this game in a good way for him."
And in the end, Merzlikins turned in one of the top performances of his career, a 36-save outing that included a spectacular double save on a Coyotes rush on a key spot in the game in the second period.

When it was all said and done and the final minutes were ticking off, Merzlikins admitted he took a second to look around, process that the job was done and share a moment in his mind with Kivlenieks.
"I was actually laughing that I didn't (screw) it up," Merzlikins said. "I am not crazy but I talk to him all the time. Like when I lost my father, I was talking to my father all the time, and now I am talking to him because I know every single post or crossbar, that's him. Even if I am not going to have (jersey) 80, I am still going to have 80 on my helmet. I know he is going to be there and saving my ass."