It’s hard on sidelines for curling spouses

Ahead of Sunday’s men’s final, Brent Laing said shooting for the right to represent Canada in the Olympics will be easier than watching his wife Jennifer Jones play, and lose, to Rachel Homan in Saturday’s semifinal.

“It’s hard to watch … it’s harder to watch than play in a lot of ways,” said Laing, the second on Kevin Koe’s team. “Obviously, I feel for them because I know what they’ve put in, I know the time and effort they’ve put into that, how badly they wanted to get back there.

“It is what it is. You know coming into this thing only one team wins, and there’s a lot of great teams.

“They ran into a really good team in Homan, and they played really well,” Laing added. “I thought Jen’s team played well, too.

“Yeah, it sucks. It’s not fun to watch her lose ever, and this is a bigger stage, and I know how badly she wants to win. At the same time, I’ve been around long enough to know there’s only one team that gets to win, and it’s not always the one you want.”

While there’s plenty of experience on Team Koe, lead Ben Hebert and third Marc Kennedy won gold at the 2010 Olympics with Kevin Martin.

“We never lack confidence on this team,” Laing said. “I think it starts with Benny. We have a lot of faith in each other — that’s how this team came together. We have a lot of respect for each other’s shotmaking.”

As for the stakes in Sunday night’s final at the Canadian Tire Centre against Winnipeg ’s Mike McEwen, Laing was blunt.

“You can’t not think about it,” he said. “Anybody that tells you they haven’t thought about it at all is lying to you.”