ST. LOUIS — Local police launched a criminal investigation into threats against the Colorado Avalanche's Nazem Kadri over the weekend but refused Monday to provide details about the incident.
The Blues also declined to comment on the matter. Players for St. Louis and Colorado said before Monday's game at the Enterprise Center that the threats were "unfortunate" and "sad."
Kadri drew the ire of St. Louis fans Saturday after he collided with Blues goalie Jordan Binnington less than seven minutes into Colorado's 5-2 victory. Binnington left the game with a lower-body injury and did not return. The Blues said he would be out for the remainder of the series.
On Sunday, an Avalanche spokesman said the team had been made "aware of threats made toward Nazem Kadri" and would work with local police to investigate.
Neither the Avalanche or police elaborated on the nature of the threats, but former professional hockey player Akim Aliu, founder of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, took to Twitter to say he had spoken with Kadri and that Kadri "has been subject to so many racist attacks and threats ... that police had to be brought in."
On Monday, just hours before Game 4 in St. Louis, at least one tweet, from an anonymous account, was still posted, calling Kadri a "terrorist Arab." Kadri is Muslim and of Lebanese descent.
The Associated Press also verified the existence of Twitter posts sent to Kadri and to the official Avalanche team account, calling Kadri “Arab scum” and referencing terrorism. Other posts, some of which have since been deleted, included death threats. It was unclear whether the posts were the subject of the police investigation.
St. Louis forward David Perron called the situation "unfortunate" on Monday.
"You don't want to see that happen to anybody for any reason," he said.
Colorado Coach Jared Bednar called the threats "unnecessary," and team captain Gabriel Landeskog said the situation was "sad."
"At the end of the day, we're in the public eye and anything that we do is seen from the outside and it can be judged," Landeskog said. "And, unfortunately, people think they have the freedom to do and say whatever they want."
Post-Dispatch reporters Jim Thomas and Dana Rieck contributed to this report.
