I didn't find the literal death funny, I found the vague link to hockey funny.
Frankly I'm not going to cry over every news story I read, the news papers are full of human misery page to page. What good does it do to pretend you give a damn but be fascinated enough to sit down and read tragedy after tragedy like some kind of necrophiliac? CNN is death porn whenever something horrible happens, playing tragic story in 5 min repeat reels describing every disgusting detail they can, dissecting it in every possible way, draining each and every single moment of user interest they can out of it, not in the name of news but in the name of ratings.
So it's not like people don't have morbid fascination - which I don't have. I can't stand the people who slow down on the highway to rubber neck when they see a horrible accident - but I'm not going to roll down my window and yell at them. I think it's atrocious the way gawkers form a circle around an accident with an ambulance on scene just to watch what's happening (a deep betrayal to the privacy of emergency crew workers and the people they're helping). There's nothing more private then tragedy - and yet here we are, airing the news internationally just so people can stop and go "oooo...". No use in arguing whose a worse person: the ones who sit watching the news all day, feeding off tragedy as entertainment, or someone like me who can smirk at a detail they see buried within a story.
People die every day. There are worse stories then that in the paper - like a kid shooting up his school. In this case it was a freak chance of nature that couldn't be prevented or foreseen - not the cruel act of human action, they weren't murdered. If I'm going to cry it'll be for the innocent blood split in war, or the genocides still raging in Africa, or the Pope not realizing that the greatest threat to marriage isn't Gay men, but ridiculous divorce laws that are unfair to husbands looking for a new beginning or better life.
So yes, some people are more sensitive than I and will see nothing remotely amusing. But I'm not apologizing for a twisted sense of humor regarding a news item. Just like how some people don't find Stewy (Family Guy), a murderous sociopath infant trying to off his mother amusing, and yet I do. I also find slasher flicks and exorcism movies screamingly funny while other people are nearly clinging to their seats with fear.
I agree that some can argue it's tasteless humour, I consider it dark humour. Call me a Death To Smoochy fan. To each their own.