Family suing Canucks may have ended confetti cannons at NHL games

You know what arenas don’t necessarily need, outside of perhaps championship celebrations and Dec. 31?

Confetti cannons.

Little shreds of paper on the ice. Little shreds of a paper landing on sticky soda-caked floors, so someone making minimum wage that already has to deal with your half-eaten nachos can sweep it up. Little, stupid, pieces of paper.

You may have noticed the absence of confetti cannon at NHL games, if one ever looks for such things, and Rick Westhead of TSN has a reason why: The parents of a then-15-year-old fan who was injured by a confetti cannon at a 2011 game between the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks in B.C. is suing the Canucks, the team’s owners and Hollynorth Production Supply, the company that supplied the air cannons.

From TSN:

The lawsuit, filed in B.C. Supreme Court, alleges the teenager, who was 15 at the time of the alleged incident, has suffered traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic amnesia, and other cognitive issues.

It's unclear whether NHL teams have formally been advised about the incident and the potential dangers of air cannons, or whether news of the accident has spread to other teams through informal word of mouth.

Several Canadian-based NHL teams, including the Oilers, Jets and Canadiens, said they have never used the cannons. A league official said he believed that the use of roof-mounted cannons has been given up.

Yikes, tough to read that about a young fan.

The wrinkle in this, according to Westhead, is that Canucks have been hit with a cross claim from Hollynorth alleging that the team would pay for any damages if the family wins because they allegedly "altered the air cannon, its components and its accessories, by modifying it or moving it, following the proper installation of the air cannon at the premises."

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