‘An exceptional third’
Mark Nichols has gone from AllStar to All-World.
A year off followed by two years playing as a lead away (as they say in Newfoundland and Labrador) and then replacing injured Brad Gushue as skip at the front end of this season has given Nichols a new status.
He’s gone from sidekick to costar.
Together 2006 Olympic gold medalists Gushue and Nichols have been the double whammy that’s resulted in Canada dominating the field at the Edmonton 2017 Ford World Curling Championship.
“I always knew Mark was an allstar curler but when he had to take over for Brad as skip for the first half of the season, he shot a lot better than I thought he could,” said Jules Owchar, the coach of Kevin Martin throughout his entire career who joined the Gushue crew when the Old Bear retired.
“I think everybody had that same impression. I mean Mark made some shots at skip that I would expect Brad or Kevin to do. He just shot the lights out. And he continued to do it, week after week, as they qualified in every big spiel and they won a spiel.
“Then Brad came back and Mark moved back down to third and still shot really well.”
Owchar figured, when Nichols won gold at the Torino 2006 Olympics on the team where Gushue threw last rocks but Russ Howard skipped and threw second rocks, that “he was a good third.”
But there’s an upgraded adjective now.
“He’s an exceptional third,” said Owchar.
“In winning the Brier I thought he was the turning point in the final game. He shot 95 percent and Mark Kennedy shot 76. That was the difference.”
Gushue hit the turn of the round robin portion of these Worlds curling an astounding 92 percent compared to 81 percent by the three closest contenders. And Nichols is curling 91 percent, well clear of the other thirds as well.
They really have become the dynamic duo.
Nichols divorced Gushue for three years there.
“I just needed a break. I needed to get away from curling and rejuvenate. I had no idea if I was going to play again or what was going to happen.”
After a year off, Nichols surfaced as a lead. In Winnipeg.
Who goes from Olympic gold medal-winning third to lead?
Nichols and wife Collette moved to the Manitoba capital to curl for Jeff Stoughton with Jon Mead and Reid Carruthers and be part of the team that lost the Brier final to Brad Jacobs in Edmonton in 2013.
“I got a call from Jeff Stoughton saying ‘We want you to play with us.’ It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I would have regretted not having taken that opportunity.”
With the retirement of Stoughton and Gushue wanting him back for the current Olympic quadrennial, Nichols was back in his home province and suddenly finding himself as skip.
“That wasn’t planned,” he laughed.
And, yes, all of that made him a better curler.
“Two years at lead playing with Jeff, Jon and Reid was something that I really believe really helped make me a better player. My feel game got better. Playing lead for two years I played nothing but draws. It definitely did help every aspect of my game.”
The experience this year as replacement skip did the same thing.
“It helped to see the game from that perspective and deal with those pressures.”
At times before the Nichols “retirement” it seemed like there was growing tension and that it wasn’t always an easy marriage with Gushue.
“You spend 16 years playing with a guy, there’s definitely some trying times,” he said.
“During curling season, I spend more time living in hotel rooms with Brad than I did at home with my family.
“There are a lot of things that go on with the tour and you have to deal with the wins and the losses and we definitely took our lumps on tour. That was trying at times,” he said of the struggles for season after season after the Olympic high.
“But obviously I have nothing but respect for the guy. He works so damn hard to be the best. And he’s proved it, for the last couple of years that he’s the best player in the game.
“Now I think we both have different perspectives on curling and how it fits into our lives. Before we both got married and had kids, curling was the be all and end all. It still is very important to us, but we have families and kids and there’s just a different perspective on it now.”
Now they really are the dynamic duo.