NHL star’s outcast girlfriend is desperately trying to clear name
The biggest off-ice scandal of the NHL last season will reignite Friday.
Melinda Karlsson, the wife of NHL star Erik, is bringing her case against Monika Caryk, the girlfriend of NHLer Mike Hoffman, to a Canadian courtroom as the case of the alleged cyberbullying between former Ottawa Senators teammates will be heard.
The Toronto court first will hear the application brought by Caryk, as explained by The Athletic, who will request that Melinda disclose any evidence and information against Caryk, which Caryk will then defend herself against.
Caryk has strongly denied cyberbullying the Karlssons. According to Caryk’s deposition, which the Ottawa Citizen reported, Caryk said she and Melinda started as friends — their partners had been Senators teammates since 2011 — and then “just became civil.” Caryk, saying “it sounds so stupid” in the Aug. 8 deposition, claimed Melinda had stopped liking her social media posts and Caryk was “left out from dinners” that Melinda organized for the team’s partners.
Caryk allegedly suspected the cold turn stemmed from posts on the website Talk-Sports, a gossip site popular with NHL wives that allows users to post anonymously. Caryk thought heinous posts about Melinda were being connected to her; the most disturbing of the accusations about Caryk’s alleged cyberbullying campaign entail internet taunts about the Karlssons’ stillborn child, who was born March 19.
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“Talk-Sports published heinous comments about the Karlsson’s [sic] and the loss of their baby soon after the tragedy,” a factum filed by Melinda’s counsel said, according to the Citizen. “One such vile comment that Caryk raised in her cross-examination was the defamatory allegation that Karlsson was ‘a pill popper’ and that the still-born baby did ‘not have a chance.’ Ironically, Caryk identified herself as a pill popper at the cross-examination as a reason she would not call Karlsson such a thing.”
Caryk, in her affidavit, said she has “steered clear” from Talk-Sports and only posted once “when she felt it was necessary to respond to a negative comment about her.” Nevertheless, Melinda and other Senators’ significant others were sure it was Caryk.
The cyberbullying of the Karlssons was not limited to Talk-Sports. On March 21, Erik posted on Instagram, announcing the loss of their son. @sandydandy45, an account that soon after was deactivated, wrote, “I feel bad for the baby, he didn’t have a fighting chance with melinda popping pain killer medication everyday.”
Erik Karlsson publicly fought the troll, saying: “how dare you. You have been making fake accounts and buying hacked ones for months to harass me and my wife but this is an all new low even for you. You are a disgusting person.”
Melinda accused Caryk of posting “over 1,000 negative and derogatory statements about me as a professional.” Caryk and Hoffman have said they have yet to see any evidence linking the troll campaign to Caryk.
Caryk, according to the Citizen, reached out to Kevin Horrocks, a software engineer, to try to determine who was making negative posts about Melinda, in trying to clear her name. Horrocks allegedly found no link between the IP addresses of Caryk’s and the troll’s. He would not tell the Citizen whether Caryk had paid him to conduct the investigation.
Hoffman, armed with Horrocks’ report, approached Erik Karlsson, who would not look at the information, multiple times.
In June, the Senators traded Hoffman to the Sharks. The Karlssons have since launched a charity, Can’t Dim My Light, to fight bullying.