Hirsch kicked off Gophers

[PCM]

It's interesting that you needed to police our board but had nothing to say about the same rumors being floated on GPL. Start there, then I have no problems if you want to come over here....

Shame one you, dagies. You are not showing the proper amount of gratitude to Gopher fans who spend valuable time policing, re-educating and pointing out the hypocriscy of SiouxSports.com members.

[BringDeanBack]

I think it's very clear that a mental illness is coming into play in some way, shape, or form here. You're obviously either too blind to see this or you're the kind of guy (or girl) who gets his kick in watching someone with a disability struggle in life. We're not back in the 1970's anymore. There are a lot more identified disabilities than those people diagnosed with "Mental Retardation." Where Tyler is an adult, he's also going through some tough years on trying to find out who he is as a person. You know Tyler's had tough years in the past, which was a clear mental condition of some sort, but for whatever reason, you can't see how these incidents are related??? We don't know the entire story, and we need to just let it go with what the Hirsch family and the U of M has released.

Perhaps you are too blind to see that he might just be a jerk. Who are you to say that mental illness is clearly in play? Have you examined him? Have you talked wtih his mental health care provider, if there is one? You don't know. I don't know. However, if he truly did have a mental condition that would be expectected to hinder his hockey career, would Lucia have ever accepted him back? People make fun of Lucia but I don't think that he would let a player play if he expected that it would harm the player in the long run. Would his parents have allowed him to play again if he had a diagnosed condition that was serious enough where it would likely hinder his hockey career? Just questions. You may be right but there is an equal chance that you are wrong. Many people in this world do strange things and it can't always be blamed on mental illness.

[PCM]

Perhaps you are too blind to see that he might just be a jerk. Who are you to say that mental illness is clearly in play? Have you examined him? Have you talked wtih his mental health care provider, if there is one?

Do you think that the NCAA simply hands out medical redshirts to college hockey players who are diagnosed as jerks? It's fairly safe to assume that unless there were other factors besides a player simply being a difficult person to deal with, Hirsch never would have been granted an extra year of eligibility.

I think Lucia did a very decent thing by giving Tyler a year to get the situation resolved and then taking him back. He must have had reason to believe that Hirsch had the problem under control. It's too bad it didn't work out because Tyler is a very talented player who could have been an asset to the Gophers. The fact that Hirsch, his family and the Minnesota coaching staff are saying so little about what happened convinces me that whatever the problem is, they either can't or don't want to discuss it publicly. That should tell you that there's more to the situation than meets the eye.

[Slap Shot]

BDB - if Hirsch were cleared to play by his doctors and more importantly by his family, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities there was a mental condition that was diagnosed as treatable with medication. People with mental conditions aren't automatically relegated to the back of the bus - many of them function quite regularly every single day in every walk of life. Perhaps he lapsed, perhaps there was a mis-diagnosis, perhaps there were other issues involved that most of us will probably never know.

I think it's natural for an event like this to spur speculation - we're only human after all. But I think unless an official statement is released it's a moot point. Does it really matter what specifically happened, or is the only thing that truly matters that Tyler be able to move on with his life and be productive, healthy and happy?

[Siouxdonyms]

Perhaps you are too blind to see that he might just be a jerk.

As I stated in my last post on this specific thread, I don't know the entire story behind Tyler's story. However, I do know that Tyler Hirsch has the skills to be a professional hockey player either in the AHL or even the NHL. He's in his senior season. Why would he just stop playing hard, when if he were in the right frame of mind, he would know that he would be hurting his future? If he didn't want to play hockey for Lucia or just not play hockey period, why would he continue to play? Just to be a jerk? It doesn't add up. There's more to the story that we don't know, but with Tyler's past, I would say that has a large part to do with it. Anyone who has ever worked with anyone with a mental disorder of some type knows that a relapse at some point or another is nearly inevitable. I've seen it too many times with clients and other people in general. And personally, where I can't say for sure as I don't know the facts, I do think this entire incident is related to what happened earlier in his career at Minnesota.

[dagies]

BDB - if Hirsch were cleared to play by his doctors and more importantly by his family, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities there was a mental condition that was diagnosed as treatable with medication. People with mental conditions aren't automatically relegated to the back of the bus - many of them function quite regularly every single day in every walk of life. Perhaps he lapsed, perhaps there was a mis-diagnosis, perhaps there were other issues involved that most of us will probably never know.

I think it's natural for an event like this to spur speculation - we're only human after all. But I think unless an official statement is released it's a moot point. Does it really matter what specifically happened, or is the only thing that truly matters that Tyler be able to move on with his life and be productive, healthy and happy?

I agree. Generally speaking, if there are personality or character reasons behind a scenario such as Hirsch's that information gets out behind the scenes. Why? Because the teammates talk to their friends who talk to their friends who post on message boards. The fact that there seems to be pretty much NO smoke in the air about Hirsch being a jerk and a slough-off tells me that this is likely more than a character flaw. In this case it would appear that the team is faithfully following Lucia likely directive to zip the lips. Why would they do that? Because they wish no ill will on Tyler. Why would they wish no ill will on Tyler? They don't blame him.

If he was a jerk and a goof-off, how many people would clam up to save his reputation? Not too many.

Case in point, and I don't bring this up to rile up Gopher fans. Rick was one of the first people to comment about Vanek causing some problems in the Gopher locker room. Of course he was ripped apart by the faithful. Step forward a year and you will begin to see the comments by some of those same faithful that indeed there were some issues. What I'm getting at here is that someone yakked and eventually there's some smoke that leads to a fire.

In Hirsch's case, there doesn't appear to be any smoke, so there's probably not any fire. This is a pretty strange and high profile situation so it would be logical that the "other" story would be leaking out. I don't see it. That's my take, anyway.

[BringDeanBack]

Do you think that the NCAA simply hands out medical redshirts to college hockey players who are diagnosed as jerks? It's fairly safe to assume that unless there were other factors besides a player simply being a difficult person to deal with, Hirsch never would have been granted an extra year of eligibility.

I think Lucia did a very decent thing by giving Tyler a year to get the situation resolved and then taking him back. He must have had reason to believe that Hirsch had the problem under control. It's too bad it didn't work out because Tyler is a very talented player who could have been an asset to the Gophers. The fact that Hirsch, his family and the Minnesota coaching staff are saying so little about what happened convinces me that whatever the problem is, they either can't or don't want to discuss it publicly. That should tell you that there's more to the situation than meets the eye.

Nothing the NCAA does surprises me anymore.