NHL Player Appears To Threaten A Meme Account On Instagram

Ottawa Senators player Nikita Zaitsev might want to log off social media for the foreseeable future.

The Senators defenseman - who was recently placed on and cleared waivers - appeared to DM the meme account @bruce_garricrotch (@EverydaySens on Twitter) demanding a face-to-face meet up after a meme was shared mocking his inability to play defense.

Below is a screenshot from Zaitsev's verified account in @bruce_garricrotch's DMs.

The popular meme account also shared a Twitter video seeming to prove that it wasn't fake. You can give it a watch for yourself below.

What was the specific meme in question? It was apparently a Spiderman meme reference, again, about how Nikita Zaitsev is a major liability on defense.

Nikita Zaitsev should be much smarter.

Why was it necessary to DM a meme page? That remains to be seen. If you find yourself DMing a meme page as a professional athlete, whose operator isn't even known, you probably need to put your phone down.

For reference, Nikita Zaitsev is earning $4.5 million this year and he's earned nearly $28 million over the course of his NHL career. If you're a multi-millionaire getting into arguments with meme pages, things have gone very wrong.

Nikita Zaitsev pulled off a stupid move on Instagram. (Photo by André Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

Now, do we need to cancel the Russian-born hockey player? No, that'd be equally as stupid as arguing with a meme page.

Is saying you want to meet face-to-face a not-so-subtle threat? Sure, but it's also very PG. Nikita Zaitsev didn't say he was going to put a hit out on @bruce_garricrotch.

He just wanted a little face-to-face interaction. Read into that as much as you want.

Nikita Zaitsev DMs meme page. (Photo by André Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

Either way, there's no real winner here. He was very dumb for wasting his time on this nonsense, and the outrage mob is in the same boat.