Gushue still has plenty to motivate him

His trophy case complete after winning the Champions Cup for the first time, Brad Gushue and his St. John’s team are aiming for even bigger things over the next quadrennial.

“There’s still lots to play for and just because we’ve won all the events that we’ve wanted to win once, you’re still pretty motivated to do it again,” Gushue said. “We still love to play. So when you love to play and you’re as competitive as we are, it’s not going to be hard to get up for a big event or for any of the events that we’re going to be signing up for.”

Gushue topped Glenn Howard last Sunday in Calgary to win the final Grand Slam of the season. The victory gave him the lone Slam title missing from his resume and capped an impressive campaign that has him on top of the national rankings.

The 37-year-old skip guided his rink to six victories over the 2017-18 campaign, including Slam wins at the Masters and Tour Challenge. The pain of coming up short at the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings last December was soothed by a successful title defence at the Tim Hortons Brier and silver medal at the world championship.

Gushue was pleased with how his team fought back in the second half of the season after coming up short at the Olympic Trials.

The team plans to take a few weeks off before getting together for an off-season meeting, likely in early June. The upcoming season begins in late summer with some cashspiels.