TEAM GUSHUE WILL BE THE TEAM TO BEAT IN MY OPINION.

Stoughton (1999), Vic Peters (1992), Mike Riley (1984), Kerry Burtnyk (1981), Barry Fry (1979), Ed Lukowich (1978), Jim Ursel (1977), Jack MacDuff (1976), Bill Tetley (1975) Hec Gervais (1974), Harvey Mazinke (1973), Alf Phillips Jr. (1967) and Terry Braunstein (1965).

Is there a Brier letdown factor for first-time Canadian teams?

“Any other team in that position would for sure be vulnerable,” said Edin. “But Team Gushue has been the team to beat for a couple of years now and seems to be stronger than ever. They will be the team to beat in my opinion. But we’ll, uh, try to do something about that.”

Rocque, who is here coaching China, believes there is a challenge there for the Gushue crew. He went through it with the Ferbey Four in Lausanne and was in a six-way tie for first in Victoria 2005.

“The worlds can be anticlimactic after a team wins the Brier, especially if it’s the first worlds. Absolutely. Consider the crowds at the Brier in Brad’s hometown in St. John’s this year. They were so energetic and enthusiastic. But this team is not going to a world championship with only a few hundred people. These are home games for Canada and I’m sure most of Edmonton will be cheering for them. Gushue also has Olympics and a ton of Brier experience,” said Rocque.

“The Brier is huge and has such an incredible strength of field that whoever wins will always represent a tough challenge to the world teams,” said Murdoch. “There is no question how much that Brier meant to Brad and the guys. But Brad and Mark Nichols have experience of something very similar with the Olympics in 2006 so I don’t see it being a problem for them to get back up for the challenge.”

There’s also the little matter of Gushue being only the second Newfoundland team to get to the worlds. The first, Jack McDuff’s team, didn’t make the podium.

Another challenge is that this is the final worlds before the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.

“We are approaching the end of the quadrennial. The worlds before an Olympics does represent a bigger challenge,” said Murdoch.

“Teams have been settled for a few years now and are gearing up for next year so they are obviously training hard and competing a lot. Teams are rounding into their top form. And for several nations what happens here will determine if they make it into the Olympics next year or not. Teams might end up out of contention for medals here but will be battling like crazy for one or two more wins to qualify for the Olympics.” You get the idea. There are at least three teams here who could win gold and another four or five capable of getting to the medal round.

“Most of the international big names are here except for Thomas Ulsrud of Norway. That makes for a tough field but creates an open spot for the playoffs,” said Edin. “Obviously Gushue has been one of the top teams in the world over the last three or four years. That team has even proven they could win without Brad when he was injured for the first half of the season,” said Rocque.

“I’d call Edin of Sweden the other No. 1 team in the world this season, winning a lot of events including back-to-back slams. Two-time world champion. Olympic-quality team. Add in David Murdoch of Scotland. Two-time world champion. Olympic medallist. And the rest of the field can curl. I am assuming Norway is sending a strong team if they were able to beat out Ulsrud. Switzerland is having a great year. The USA can knock on that door. Japan is very strong …”

I stopped him before he got to China.