Aleksandra Merzlikins Blasts Fans Sending Hateful DMs to Her & Her Husband

This was a tough story to process. Regardless of how we feel about a given athlete, no individual ever deserves to receive threats and other brands of vitriol over a game. Absolutely ludicrous.

Keyboard warriors are sending all types of evil messages to Elvis Merzlikins and his wife, some going as far as saying the whole family deserves to die. Yeah, pretty f---ed up. It only gets worse when you remember how traumatized the Blue Jackets' goaltender was after the passing of friend and teammate, Matiss Kivlenieks. Oh, and the fact that Elvis and Aleksandra have an infant son.

Just a total mess.

Aleksandra, the family's matriarch, issued a statement to fans sending threats to her family, blasting them over their terrible messages. She wrote via her Instagram:

Some fans just don't know when enough is enough. The state of the world might have lots and lots of people on edge, but there is simply no excuse for this type of behavior. Hopefully, the Merzlikins family can find peace in all this.

Elvis has not gotten off to a particularly great start this season, which could be the origin of the negative emotions. As the misses alludes to, fans love Elvis when he is playing good hockey; not so much when he is struggling.

So far, through five starts Merzlikins sports a 2-3 record with a 4.31 GAA and a .863 SV%. He ranks last in the NHL in Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) with -7.2.

Not that this justifies the messages befalling Elvis and his family; it absolutely does not. The context matters, however, as a bunch of sour fans berate a guy and his family for a small stretch of poor performances.

In summary, that is just total bush league, and I hope Elvis and his family are safe through this. And hopefully, the guy finds his game, so Blue Jackets fans are nice to him again.

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