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:
Ryan Hank: You were one of the more famous Canucks backups but before that, you were a backstop for one of the most famous WHL/CHL teams of all time: the 90’s Blazers. You were a WHL and CHL goalie of the year which is pretty impressive considering that everyone knows how hard that league is. When you had your Blazers mask, did you have any input to what was going on there or did they have a template for you?
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.
RH: That name comes up a lot. I guess there are only a handful of guys in the world that really do this. Greg Harrison comes up almost every time. Eddie Lack had Dave Gunnarsson in Sweden but that seemed like a good fit for him being so close. I’m looking at your first mask, actually, your second Canucks mask if I’ve done the math correctly.
Your second one was the Haunted Mansion, one of my favourites, it’s just kind of a badass look. You had the brick wall on the chin there and it seemed like goalies were doing that a bit back then. Jim Carey (Captials rookie at the time) had that on his too, I believe? It just felt like there was the right amount of detail and it wasn’t overdone.
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.
RH: I didn’t know until about 10 or so years ago and I’m 36 so it’s ok. (I may take some heat for this)
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.
RH: Like an intimidation factor?
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.
RH: I was wondering about that. You’ve been pretty vocal about the things that you’ve struggled with mentally and I wondered if the two connected together?
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.
RH: What did you have on the backplate of that one, I don’t think I’ve seen it?
CH: I had a Hershey’s kiss, I think that was it. (Clearly a typo on my part)
RH: I’ll have to dig up a photo of that. On your first mask when you came up you had an alternate of what Kirk Mclean’s mask was. It looked like they tweaked Mclean’s mask ever so slightly.
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)
RH: Your third one, I think was kind of the most original of all of them. You introduced the aboriginal design, I think there was an eagle on there or a fish?
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.
RH: He crushed it though.
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.
RH: When you went to the aboriginal one, right before the team went to the orca. You and Mclean both got those, you were kind of in the know almost, after they went to the orca that’s on the jersey now and you had that design before. Did they tell you?
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?
RH: Yeah, you had the skate coloured look and then the orca 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.
RH: You have one that looks like a Bromley knock off as well? That might not be you.
CH: No, I never had that one. The Team Canada one I had the Itech one, that was a Frank Zipper one as well.
RH: OK, I have one more for you: Do you have a favourite mask from a current or past goalie?
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.
RH: It’s interesting to see the evolution of all these. There’s so much going on them now. I think Luongo perfected if you wanted something on there, he knew how to keep them simple. He had one thing on there but it was impactful.
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)
RH: So do you keep all those masks or do you donate them?
CH: No, I have them all. The one is in the Hall of Fame.
RH: the Canada one?
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.
RH: No kidding! Well Corey, thank you so much. I appreciate it. This is something I’ve always loved to look at and now I can pick everyone’s brain on it.
CH: No problem, let me know when it comes out.
RH: Will do.
CH: Thanks, man.
RH: Thank you.
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.
