READY TO ROCK AT THE BRIER
Gushue in spotlight in St. John’s
One of the greatest moments of Brad Gushue’s life came when he won a curling gold medal at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
Just stepping on the ice this Saturday will rank right up there.
“If it’s not at the top, it would be awfully close,” Gushue said from St. John’s, N.L., this week as his hometown prepares to host the Tim Hortons Brier, March 4-12. “Obviously, the Olympics would be there as well, but to get to play a Brier, at home, in St. John’s, where we haven’t had a Brier in 45 years, is certainly going to be pretty exciting. It’s going to be an incredible experience for me to play and for our team.”
Gushue, 36, is a veteran of 13 previous Briers, losing the final twice, but never winning the Canadian men’s title.
The Newfoundland skip always believed St. John’s would be the perfect place to host a Brier and when Curling Canada started looking at smaller markets and venues (like Kamloops, B.C., in 2014), Gushue spearheaded a bid to bring the big event to Mile One Centre.
Working with city councillor Danny Green, Destination St. John’s and the St. John’s IceCaps of the American Hockey League, Gushue helped make the bid successful before stepping aside to focus on competing with his team of Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker.
“It’s going to be one hell of a Brier,” Gushue said. “The excitement around the city is incredible. I know all our games are sold out and pretty much all the others are, as well. People are pretty pumped about it.”
It doesn’t hurt that Gushue happens to skip one of the best teams in Canada. The foursome is No. 1 in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) heading into the Brier and is one of the favourites to win it all.
They’ll get a major challenge from defending Canadian and world champion Kevin Koe of Calgary (Team Canada), as well as 2014 Olympic champ Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario, Manitoba’s Mike McEwen (7th in CTRS rankings), B.C.’s John Morris (a 2010 Olympic gold medallist) and four-time world champion Glenn Howard of Ontario.
Gushue’s team outpaced them all on the World Curling Tour despite the fact the skip was injured for 47 games. He returned from a groin/hip injury in December to find his team already near the top of the CTRS rankings.
“They played well without me, which kind of made me worried if I was going to have a spot when I came back,” Gushue said. His team used Charley Thomas, Adam Spencer and Pat Simmons as replacements while Gushue was out.
“Since I’ve been back we’ve been good. We won our last event in The Battlefords (Sask.) against all the top teams, which was nice. It made me feel like I’m still wanted.”
As enjoyable as it is for Gushue to be a part of this hometown event, it’s been a stressful few months. The injury, at times, left him wondering if he’d even be able to take part in the Brier. And, as the event approaches, he and Nichols are heavily involved in starting up a new business (Orangetheory Fitness), which has kept some of their focus off curling.
Perhaps that’s a good thing, as Gushue admits he’s trying not to get too far ahead of himself when it comes to this hometown championship.
“Your mind goes there but I try not to look at it,” Gushue said. “To be honest I’m pretty happy to have it here and pretty appreciative that Curling Canada awarded it to St. John’s. I’m even more grateful for the way it has been supported by the people of St. John’s and Newfoundland. We’re going to enjoy every minute of it. It certainly would be icing on the cake if we came out with a win, but either way it’s going to be a dream come true and one heck of a fun week to be out there having people cheering for every single shot that you make.”
This event could go a couple of ways for Team Newfoundland/ Labrador. Gushue and his teammates could flounder under the pressure of playing in a hometown Brier or they could flourish with a full house behind them on every draw, takeout, tap or guard they throw.
“It’s tough to say,” McEwen said. “There might be a lot of pressure on those guys, that they’ll put on themselves, but they also might just feed off that crowd and just play unbelievably all week. I’m not sure which way it’s going to go. It’s going to be a great atmosphere, not only for Team Newfoundland to compete in but probably all of us. Those guys are so seasoned that they’ll be able to handle the pressure and the distractions that the hometown event can bring.”
McEwen expects the competition to be fierce, with the likes of Gushue, Koe, Jacobs and Morris all competing.
“Those teams, when they’re playing at their best, there’s not much to choose from each one of them,” McEwen said. “I would never count out guys like (Quebec’s Jean-Michel) Menard or (four-time world champion) Glenn Howard, either. They can certainly beat anybody on any given day. There will be some good teams that don’t make it into the final weekend. I think it’s a bit wide open.”