ON THE ROCKS
Toronto’s John Epping added to an impressive career resume in Truro, and hopes he can wear a Maple Leaf on the ice in the future
When Anna Hasselborg’s team from Sweden won the Grand Slam’s Masters of Curling on Sunday in Truro, N.S., third Sara McManus said it felt almost as good as winning the Olympics.
Toronto’s John Epping doesn’t have the frame of reference to go along with that statement.
Epping won the men’s side of the Masters of Curling to improve upon an already solid Grand Slam resume, but at this point he only wishes he could compare it to an Olympic medal.
“I can’t speak to that too much because I’ve never been in the Olympics and I wouldn’t turn that down in a heartbeat,” Epping said Monday, after his team took the $30,000 top prize with a 7-4 win over Olympian Kevin
Koe on Sunday.
“But these Grand Slams are the best fields, with the top 15 teams in the world, so to get through all those teams is a really big accomplishment. They’re special.”
Epping, 35, has been a top curler in Canada for the last decade and Sunday’s win gave him the career slam.
He also won the Players Championship in 2012 and the Canadian Open in 2015 as a skip and won the National in 2008 as second for Wayne Middaugh.
Only five skips have ever won the career slam — Kevin Martin, Glenn Howard, Middaugh, Jeff Stoughton, and Brad Gushue.
Epping is obviously proud of his accomplishment, but there’s been something missing in his career so far — the opportunity to wear the Maple Leaf on the world stage.
“That’s a lifelong dream,” Epping said. “When I was little, curling wasn’t in the Olympics and there were no Grand Slams. Everything was focused around the Brier, so I’ve always wanted to win a Brier and represent Canada at the world championships. That would just be a huge dream come true. Same to win the Olympic trials and go to the Olympic Games. It would be very gratifying.”
Epping has been knocking at the door for a while and this year he has a new team that has all the tools to get him over the top.
Epping added two players with impressive resumes this season, including 2018 Olympian and three-time world champion Brent Laing at second and two-time world champion Craig Savill at lead. Laing parted with Koe after the team finished fourth at the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, last February.
Long before that, Laing and Savill played with the Howard — Epping’s longtime nemesis in Ontario provincial playdowns — for a decade and had a tremendous amount of success.
“Their experience has been great,” said Epping, who also curls with third Mathew Camm.
“It’s a couple of different pairs of eyes and some different conversations. It has taken some time in the first couple of months to get to know each other and how we all react in different situations. It’s good to be able to see each other at our best but also maybe when we’re at our worst, too. It’s good to be able to know how to handle each other.”
Epping certainly has proven he’ll be able to handle himself if and when he does find himself on the world stage. On Sunday alone, he knocked off two Olympians — silver medallist Niklas
Edin of Sweden and Koe — in succession.
The field also included Gushue, the 2006 Olympic gold medallist, 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster, and 2014 Olympic champ Brad Jacobs.
“We beat the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the world,” Epping said. “Especially in a high-pressure situation to come out and beat those two teams, who were both at the Olympics … it’s great. It gives us a lot of confidence and it’s really exciting for us.”
Still, you can tell from his words that Epping is far from satisfied.
“The (Slams) are hard but there’s a little more pressure when it comes to the Brier or the Olympic trials, when you have an opportunity to represent your country,” he said. “For me, that would be really special. I’ve never really had the opportunity to represent Canada. To have the whole
country cheering for you and wearing the Maple Leaf is something special.
“If you told me I was going to win four Slams in my career, I’d be happy with that, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna stop now.”
With that in mind, this seems like a team that could challenge at the trials for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, but Epping’s not looking that far ahead at this point.
“I hope so,” he said. “We haven’t talked too much about the Olympics. We’re focused on some short-term goals. We want to win a Slam, get to the Brier and just really play well and win curling games. If we win curling games I can see this going on for quite a while.”