Elvis Merzļikins smacks back ignorant troll who blamed him for Matiss Kivlenieks' death

As if Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzļikins wasn't already feeling miserable enough about the untimely death of his teammate and fellow Latvian goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks in a tragic fireworks accident during a July 4 party, he's also now had to deal with the ridiculous accusation that he somehow bears responsibility. 

Both Merzļikins and Kivlenieks were attending a 4th of July party at the suburban Detroit home of Blue Jackets goaltending coach Manny Legace over the holiday weekend. Kivlenieks was struck in the chest by an errant firework mortar blast and succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital, with the cause of death being listed as chest trauma which triggered major damage to his heart and lungs.

After Merzļikins re-tweeted a heartfelt tribute to his fallen teammate, it wasn't long before a troll with a serious lack of empathy decided to weigh in on the situation, essentially attempting to lay the blame for the accident at his feet. 

"I hope you learned a valuable lesson from your experience partying the other night," wrote the user. "If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes."

While there are several confirmed injuries from fireworks that easily could have been avoided every year, the situation that ultimately cost Kivlenieks his life was simply a tragic accident, and not the result of carelessness or inebriation. 

"At the moment, we're pretty certain this was a tragic accident," Lt. Jason Meier explained. 

It wasn't long before Merzļikins took the Twitter troll to task, appropriately putting him in his place. 

"I never answer to fans especially when I need to justify things. But this time it’s different…I read your comment and I hope you feel rotten inside for what you said, we lost a good person and not because of “stupidity” but because he took it for us all."

"Now I hope you learn from this that before leaving a comment on social media which can hurt someone you do your research and don’t write bs for 5 seconds of notoriety buddy"

Not surprisingly, the twitter user that posted the absurd accusation has since altered his account to private mode, meaning that only select internet users are able to see his posts. Needless to say, we hope that he's learned his lesson.