Trying to solve a curling mystery
Despite winning lots of cash and hardware, the Brier eludes McEwen’s Manitoba rink
CALGARY — Jeff Stoughton broke Mike McEwen’s heart and quashed his dreams with a curling broom many times over the years at the Manitoba provincials.
Now retired, Stoughton figures the inevitable will come to pass and the McEwen rink out of Winnipeg’s Fort Rouge Curling Club will finally advance to the Tim Horton’s Brier.
“It will happen,” says the soft-spoken Stoughton, a three-time Brier champion.
“It could be next year. Could be this year. They’re just too good of a team for it not to happen. They’re a great team. They’ve got the experience. They know what it takes to win.
“It’s just a strange event, the provincial championship.”
In Edmonton, 2010 Olympic champion Kevin Martin can’t figure out how a rink as powerful that skipped by McEwen has yet to experience life outside the Brier Patch at the Canadian men’s curling championship.
“It’s such an odd thing,” says Martin, an analytical type who considers himself a lifelong student of the game. “It’s amazing he hasn’t won Manitoba yet. Just incredible. The McEwen team is the best in the world. They just hammer people all the time.”
Chalk it up as Canada’s greatest curling mystery: why can’t the best team on the planet advance out of Manitoba?
The conundrum could finally be solved come the Manitoba provincials February at the Selkirk Recreation Complex. With a win, McEwen would advance to the 2016 Tim Hortons Brier March 5-13 in Ottawa. Or not. “He’ll have to earn it because Reid Carruthers is moving up the ranks,” Martin says. “So Mike is going to have to find a way past Reid’s team and they’re going to have to come up with a good game at the right time.”
Coming up with good games is hardly a challenge for McEwen, B.J. Neufeld, Matt Wozniak and Denny Neufeld. The foursome is No. 1 in World Curling Tour Order of Merit rankings. They finished the 2014-15 season atop the World Curling Tour money list. They have won six Grand Slams — the most recent coming last month in Truro, N.S.
“We’ve been together as a team for … I’m losing track, it’s got to be close to 10 years now,” McEwen says. “The turnabout we’ve done the last couple of seasons as far as improving our work ethic and perspective — all of the little things off the ice — it’s just amazing to be part of. I’m so lucky that I have some of my best buddies to go out on tour all around the country and the world with.
“It’s really special to play with these guys.”
Outside the Manitoba playdowns, consistency is a calling card for the McEwen crew. Case in point: the Home Hardware Canada Cup this weekend in Grande Prairie, Alta. Saturday, McEwen soundly defeated Saskatoon’s Stephen Laycock 10-4 to advance directly to the men’s final Sunday. On the line: prize money of $14,000, a trip to Las Vegas to be part of the Team North America at the 2016 World Financial Group Continental Cup and, most importantly, a trip to the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings in Ottawa.
In balance, an Olympic trials berth is arguably more important than a trip to the Brier. Both events hold the key to curlers becoming household names in Canada.
McEwen knows better than to judge the success of his team solely on one tournament every February in his home province. Fact is, he routinely beats big names like Brad Gushue, Brad Jacobs, Kevin Koe and Pat Simmons.
“You always learn more from your losses — as long as you have the structure and the people around you to evaluate those situations,” says McEwen, who has lost in the Manitoba final five times since 2010. “And we do. I’ve been able to learn a lot from many finals losses in provincials and things like that. We’ve got stronger because of those. It’s benefited us in the long run.”
Maybe in the long run, but that doesn’t take the sting out of the defeats. In 2014, McEwen boarded a plane for Sochi a couple days after his team lost again in provincials.
On the marathon flight to watch his wife Dawn compete for Canada with Jennifer Jones, McEwen wondered if time had simply expired on his foursome — if it would be best for all concerned, in hockey terms, to break up the core.
In hopes of taking that extra step, the McEwen team reached out over the summer to an old nemesis in Jon Mead, the longtime third for Stoughton. Nearing the end of his career, Mead came aboard as the fifth/coach.
With six Brier appearance on his resume, the 48-year-old certainly knows how to navigate the provincials and beyond.
“We have a gentlemen sitting behind the boards who might be the extra structure we need to perform in that environment,” McEwen says. “We’re hoping that maybe we were missing a little piece of the puzzle. We’ll see what happens with that this year, but we really feel good with the people we have on the ice and off the ice.”
By the end of the day on Sunday, Team McEwen could have a spot in the Olympic trials locked down.
By the end of February, all could be righted with the world and Team McEwen might finally book passage to the Brier.
“It’s like they’ve got this mental block thing when it comes to Manitoba,” Martin says. “And I imagine it will be a dogfight again between Reid Carruthers and Mike McEwen.
“The winner wins, but the loser is awfully good.”
“The McEwen team is the best in the world. They just hammer people all the time.” KEVIN MARTIN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST