Shelagh Hirsch is standing by her man. The wife of goaltender Corey Hirsch is steaming over comments National Hockey League Players' Association president Trevor Linden made about her husband.

The background: Corey Hirsch made national headlines a week ago when he stated the case for players who lost jobs in Europe to locked-out NHLers in a column for the Sun.

Linden said Hirsch should look in the mirror.

"Corey went there three years ago and certainly took someone else's job," said Linden after the NHLPA meeting in Toronto on Tuesday. "Now it's happening to him and it'll happen to me one day."

DISTORTED THE FACTS

Shelagh Hirsch, in an e-mail to the Sun, said Linden distorted the facts of Hirsch's arrival in Europe.

Linden conveniently ignored the fact most leagues allow for a couple of imports on each team and Hirsch was recruited to use one of those import cards, she said.

"Those are uneducated comments about Corey taking someone's job in Europe," wrote Shelagh Hirsch.

"He's on an import card and there are two per team. He signed in the summer only a year ago, not three years ago.

"(Linden) should look himself in the mirror and see if he's leading the players down the wrong path. The fans need to know that this guy doesn't research before he speaks ... (Linden)'s just pulling at straws."

Hirsch, who lost his job in Switzerland to Martin Gerber of the Carolina Hurricances, has now gone to Germany to play for Kassell.

Shelagh, who is pregnant, is still in Switzerland and hoping medical insurance will somehow cover the birth of their child.

chris.stevenson@ott.sunpub.com