Unmasking Canucks Legends: A Conversation with Corey Hirsch

After a pretty stellar junior career with the Kamloops Blazers in which he helped his team head to two-straight Memorial Cup tournaments, winning it the second time, Corey Hirsch then made his way to the pros where he would eventually become a reliable backup goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks.

Of course, the Canucks weren’t the only net that Corey protected, but after his playing days were over he came back to contribute to the team’s broadcasts as the Canucks’ colour man on Sportsnet 650. His insight as a former player is invaluable to broadcasts, giving a perspective that the listener just couldn’t imagine unless they were in the same position.

Corey Hirsch had a colourful collection of masks during his tenure in Vancouver and thankfully he was willing to have a chat with me to talk about the stories behind them. It was interesting to hear how so many goaltenders use the same designer for their masks considering how many teams in the league there were. It’s surprising that half the league didn’t play with a black mask for a season at a time.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my conversation with Corey Hirsch:

Corey Hirsch: No, with the Blazers, goalies wore mostly cage and helmets back then, but I got a mask call from a guy, from Krubunco, was his name. So I had a mask from him when I was 16 and 17. I got a mask from him and I had that done on my own, so there was no theory behind that. My shop teacher in high school painted that one.

My last year in Junior, Itech was one of the first ones that came out with a form-fitting kind of small, medium, large size of mask. I was one of the first ones to wear it, it didn’t have any paint on it, it was white. They didn’t offer any paint jobs, really. They were cookie-cutter but they were really good masks. Frank Zipper was my painter on those. A really good mask, though.

That’s what I wore pretty much right through until I made the Canucks and then Greg Harrison made me a mask.

CH: Frank Zipper, one of my favourite painters. We were looking at Vancouver’s colours and the scheme and they had the skate logo. Everyone kinda wondered, well what the hell is that? I didn’t know it was the skate until about two years ago.

CH: What did stand out though was that the colours were kind of Halloween-ish: black, red, gold. I talked to Frank and asked “what’s something kind of Halloween-ish, something kinda scary?” I always found that my generation growing up was the 70s masks and they had a spooky feel to them. When guys would put a mask on they became a different person.

With Bromley’s mask, he had a skull, and the scary look was kind of the way of the 70s.

CH: Yeah, so that’s how we came up with the Halloween idea. And then the Psycho house parlayed into the Halloween theme. We were thinking of scary movies, classic scary movies and what was the scariest Halloween movie of all time? I don’t know if it was myself or Frank that talked about doing the Psycho house.

It also parlayed into my mental health issues that I had, so it was kind of fitting.

CH: Yes, it definitely played into it. It was kind of perfect. It was exactly how I felt that it was going in my brain. So it all just came together like that.

I was having issues but it was having a good painter that put it together. You can give a guy an idea and if he’s not a really creative person… Frank is really a forward-thinking painter. You can give him an idea and he’d run with it. He’d give you what you wanted. He wouldn’t do what HE wanted. Some painters are like “well that’s a great idea, but I’m going to do it the way I want to do it”. Frank would take my vision and he was awesome with it.

So that’s how that all came together on that one.

CH: I had a Hershey’s kiss, I think that was it. (Clearly a typo on my part)

CH: I vaguely remember that one, I didn’t wear it very long. I don’t remember who made that one. I don’t think I ever wore it in a game. I could have been screwing around and someone sent me a mask and I tried to see if I liked it.

One of my favourite masks that no one really got to see because I got traded after I got it. I only wore it for a month. It was a New York Rangers mask. It had King Kong climbing up the side of the Empire State Building. I only had for maybe a month and then I got traded to Vancouver. That was one of my favourites that I didn’t get to wear and nobody got to see. I don’t know if there are any photos out there of it. I’ll have to see if I have one.

(Corey delivered, check this out)

CH: That was when I got a Harrison. Greg Harrison at the time, it would take him a year and a half to make you a mask. He was coming out of the business and it was painful trying to get a mask from him. I finally got one from him and he went with a west coast look. Greg didn’t give you much input on a mask. He talked to you about it and then he did his own thing.

There were simple, classic designs.

CH: Yeah, he was great. He never got real busy on his masks. I find a lot of the masks today, they’re too busy, you can’t even tell what’s on them, there’s too much s**t. I’m into more of a classic look.

CH: There was one prior to that that went with the old Canucks logo. I had two Harrison’s. The one you’re talking about is the second one he made for me, so that logo may have already come out. I have one in my apartment, wait, maybe that IS the one your talking about. The eagle? The second one has the blue, is that the one?

CH: Those were the two Harrisons? Ok, so the first one you’re talking about with the eagle I wore with the old Canucks logo which kind of blended. The second one I got when they changed to the Orca. I got sent to Syracuse one year and I wore one of those in Syracuse.

CH: No, I never had that one. The Team Canada one I had the Itech one, that was a Frank Zipper one as well.

CH: Gary Bromley was my favourite of all time. The skull one. I liked the old school masks without the cages on them. Those were my favourite, you know like Mike Liut. If I had to pick one with the cage on it, I like the classic design that Kirk had. I think that was probably one of my favourites as well.

CH: Yeah, actually my Dallas Stars mask probably isn’t on there, that was cool. That one was a wizard and some stars. That was Frank Zipper as well. (The wizard one is pictured above)

CH: No, I have them all. The one is in the Hall of Fame.

CH: No, the Psycho house. That’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The mask display they have, I donated that one. I think rather than sitting in a basement somewhere with me, it’s there for everyone to see. It’s neat to have it there. They take care of your stuff.

My Olympic pads are there as well.

CH: No problem, let me know when it comes out.

CH: Thanks, man.

 

It was such a pleasure to get further insight into yet another Canucks’ goalie’s brain. Corey Hirsch has a special story and I’m glad he was able to share that with me. He has been quite vocal with his mental health issues and the fact that he had a bit of a story with arguably his most famous mask showed that Corey was able to get the better of some of his demons.

The Canucks do have a special group of guys.