Bottcher rink continues to find success at Brier
Bottcher rink finding its groove again against who’s who of curling greats
There’s something about the Brier that just seems to work for Brendan Bottcher’s Alberta team.
Bottcher went 8-3 and made the final in Regina in 2018 before losing to Brad Gushue and then went 9-2 last year in Brandon, Man., before losing the final to Kevin Koe.
This year, Bottcher and his teammates from Edmonton were sitting at 8-0 heading into Thursday evening’s draw and are once again strong contenders for the Canadian men’s curling championship crown.
All told, Bottcher has a 29-7 record in the last three Briers, even while competing against a who’s who of great Canadian curling teams.
“In some ways this event is perfect for us,” Bottcher’s third, Darren Moulding, said after his team beat Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone 9-5 Thursday afternoon at Leon’s Centre.
“The way that provincials and everything works after Christmas, we have a lot of time to prepare. We’re a team that the more we practise, the better we prepare, the better we play. Alberta playdowns come at the time of year where we get what we need: a good balance of playing and practice.
“During tour season you just kind of go, go, go, work, work, work, play, play, play. It’s a little tough to find time to practise. That’s probably a big reason why we play really well at this time of year.”
There’s also a significant difference with Team Bottcher this year. In the last two Briers, it was just Bottcher, Moulding, second Brad Thiessen and lead Karrick Martin making up the team.
This year they’ve added a fifth, Patrick Janssen, and brought along a coach, Olympian and two-time Brier winner Don Bartlett.
“Having a fifth and having Donnie here has given all of us more rest,” Moulding said. “I certainly feel fresher than I’ve ever felt at a Brier before. I’ve been working hard on different things to prepare.”
That makes sense, since it was Moulding who did all of the scouting of the rocks last season during practice and pre-game availabilities. An ice technician by trade, Moulding likes to do the scouting of the sheets and rocks, but found it to be stressful on the schedule in the past.
He has off-loaded those duties to Janssen and Bartlett this year.
“I know it really helps Darren because that takes a lot of your time,” Bartlett said. “Now he doesn’t have to worry about that and has extra time to relax. The more time you have to relax is big.”
Bottcher was alone in first place in the championship pool through Thursday afternoon, with only Gushue a single game behind. Newfoundland and Labrador’s Gushue beat Canada’s Koe 7-4 Wednesday to get to 7-1, but two more teams that were near the top dropped back a bit.
Wild Card’s Mike Mcewen lost 6-4 to Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs to slip to 6-2, while Dunstone also fell to 6-2.
Four teams are sitting at 5-3 but are still very much in the playoff picture, including Northern Ontario, Canada, Ontario (John Epping) and Manitoba (Jason Gunnlaugson).
Epping, who barely squeaked into the championship round with a nail-biting win over Northwest Territories on Wednesday, looked much sharper on Thursday in winning 9-5.
But so far, this has been Bottcher’s tournament. His team has been the most consistent and has stayed out of trouble. Bottcher hasn’t had to make the circus shots like some other skips, mostly because his team hasn’t left him in those situations.
“Just the comfort level, being in this situation a few times in a row, is big for us,” Bottcher said. “It’s not a new situation. It lets you just relax and play well and hopefully that’s what we can keep doing.” Bottcher and his teammates seemed to pride themselves on not having a fifth or a coach at the Brier last year in Brandon. They made it to the final and were inches away from a Canadian championship after Koe made a game-winning double in the 10th end.
“It was working well for us, but it’s a long week when you don’t have those extra people to do all the other things, so we can only focus on curling,” Bottcher said.
What they’re doing now is winning a lot.
“We’ve had a couple of lulls in the middle of games but we’ve closed them out well and, in that respect, I think it’s a victory for us,” the 28-year-old Bottcher said.